Recently, Luigi Mangione’s murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Johnson has sparked major debate over the ethics of his actions. While his actions came as an abrupt shock to the entire world, people have been quick to take sides regarding whether or not his shooting of Johnson was justified.
Most of the justification for Johnson’s murder is due to his actions as CEO for United Healthcare. Despite being the largest healthcare company in the entirety of the United States, the company had the highest denial rate out of any major corporation, denying around ⅓ of all patient claims. This massive denial rate, especially coupled with the massive share of the healthcare industry United Healthcare controls, has led some to label Johnson as a “murderer” as well, indirectly killing thousands all for the sake of profit.
Complaints have also been raised against how quickly the New York State government is responding to this murder. While the city of New York has around 520 acts of homicide every year, they responded and deployed their forces almost instantly, most likely due to the elite status of the victim, while other victims of murder have yet to be avenged.
But at the end of the day, murder is still murder, an act that is morally wrong and an unforgivable sin. And while Johnson’s actions while he was CEO at UHC were deplorable and should be treated at such, a point-blank assassination is not the solution to this particular issue. While Mangionei’s actions will hopefully spark great change across America’s largest companies, especially in an industry as predatory as the healthcare industry, we should not be celebrating him like a hero. Yes, his intentions may have been righteous and done in order to bolster a great cause. But we shouldn’t live in a world where murder is considered commonplace and celebrated in a way that some people online are currently doing so. We shouldn’t live in a society where murder is treated as the only way to solve all of our issues. There should most definitely be harsh consequences for corruption, but promoting this act of murder will only heighten paranoia and insecurity amongst America’s elites. Like New York governor Kathy Hochul said on Thursday, “That horrific attack occurred on our streets and the people of our city deserve to have that sense of calm that this perpetrator has been caught, and he will never be seeing the light of day again if there is justice. You cannot assassinate an individual on the streets of New York – not now, not ever.”
