A debt to Society?

Question

I saw this on TV. Woman A is suspected of killing her abusive husband and Woman B tries to tell her that she owes a debt to society by telling the truth. How exactly does she mean by that?

Answer 1

Gothic Martha....you didn't read the question correctly....the man is D E A D because his wife killed him.

I think the debt to society would be taking responsiblity for taking someone's life. Even though the husband was abusive, it does not justify Woman A's act of murder. The debt would be to own up to her actions and face the consequences. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Answer 2

Listen carefully to what you are saying, because there are two ways to take it. The A woman I will call Alice and B lets call Betsy. Alice is suspected of killing her abusive husband. That means she is basically accused more or less. It means not everyone is accusing or suspects this probably, but at least one someone is thinking that Alice killed her husband. Betsy tells Alice that she (Betsy) owes a debt to society. That means Betsy believes and is accusing Alice of killing her (Alice's) own husband. For the crime of murder, Betsy is telling Alice to fess up, confess to the deed. The reason-so that Alice gets tried in court and pays for her wrongdoing or pays her debt to society.

The other way to take it, and that is only because you were not clear when you stated your question, would be:
Same situation for Alice. She is accused of or at least one person is suspecting her of killing her own husband. That is the situation Alice is in. Here is where it becomes unclear-the 'she owes a debt..' may refer to either Alice or Betsy-she who? So since we already did the first one with she being Alice who is a suspect......Next, along comes Betsy, perhaps because Alice was unjustly accused and Betsy tells Alice that she (Betsy) owes a debt to society, that means she (Betsy) is the one who murdered Alice's husband. Then Betsy goes on and says she will herself pay it by telling society the truth. Inotherwords, Betsy is going to confess to her crime.

So according to the first version we do not know if Alice is guilty or not. In the second version we know Betsy is guilty, therefore Alice is not.

Ofcourse, technically I suppose there could be meant a third scenario In that Betsy knows Alice is guilty and that people suspect Alice. Betsy knows because she helped Alice. Now that she knows Alice is a suspect, so she knows it is just a matter of time and everyone will realize she is an accomplice. She thinks about that, maybe she is afraid, maybe she is repentant, but whatever, Betsy tells Alice that she (Betsy) is guilty so she owes a debt to society and she owes it to society to tell them the truth about what happened. Betsy then would have gone to Alice either to inform her of her intentions so that Alice would not be surprised, or so that Alice could run if she wanted to. Otherwise, in this case senario the only other reason she would have told Alice what she planned to do, was in the hope that Alice would do likewise with her.

Then again, I suppose that even though the wording would have to be called misleading for this, you might be able to view this as Alice is suspected and going to be questioned so Betsy tells Alice that she (Alice) owes it to society to be honest. In that case she is telling Alice that when she is questioned she must tell everything she knows and hold back nothing.

Answer 3

It means that she owes the community to know about the dangers of the man. If she doesn't tell someone about him, she is risking the lives of other people who he may have contact with.

Answer 4

wrong advice , this is not her work .

Answer 5

TV --- go figure.