Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that vice can pay to virtue.

John Harrison - the man with the golden arm - died February 17th 2025. Mr. Harrison was inspiring, both morally and intellectually, which dovetailed in my research on epistemic and moral responsibility. His blood plasma was used to synthesize a cure for Rhesus disease, and in donating is estimated to have saved the lives of over 2 million infants worldwide. Remarkable.

Mr. Harrison has been a staple example in my work on responsibility, e.g. Ties that Undermine, Judgments of Moral Responsibility in Tissue Donation Cases, and Speak No Evil. I leave you with a passage from the last of these works:

“…Rhesus disease kills millions of infants around the world, and there is – at present – not a cure that can be synthesized in a lab without the blood plasma of John Harrison. Harrison’s donations have saved the lives of approximately 2.4 million infants worldwide. It seems plausible he has a responsibility to donate. But it also seems Harrison is uniquely positioned to help, and carries great responsibility to do so. To see this, consider if each of us knew we were able to provide blood plasma that could be used to synthesize a vaccine for Rhesus disease, but none of us donated, then we would have all done something morally wrong, but none of us would have obviously done anything worse than anyone else in this context. In contrast, in our context where John Harrison is uniquely able to provide this aid and is aware of that fact, John refraining from donating blood plasma seems morally worse than it would be in the context where everyone – himself included – could donate but decided not to. Perceived rarity to provide aid influences judgments of moral responsibility...”