The child's letter
From Foundations of ethicsAbout 4 min read

The minister read the letter that his assistant had deliberately left on the desk. Normally assistants would read all letters first and filter out the points that needed reporting for instructions; no one would let the minister read a letter directly like this. The letter was in a child's handwriting, trying hard to be neat. Its content was:
"Dear Minister of Transport
My name is Hiền and I am 8 years old. This Tết my family should have been celebrating very happily, because my mother has just given me an extremely lovable baby brother. But unfortunately my father has just gone to prison for causing a fatal traffic accident, and the victim was my own uncle, that is, my father's own younger brother. I have always loved that uncle enormously. He was wonderful. If you had met him, I'm sure you would have liked him too.
I just went into the prison to visit my father and asked him why he had crashed his car into my uncle. He said he had done every manoeuvre correctly, but my uncle suddenly appeared in front of the car just when my father had already pressed the accelerator and could not take it back. The impact was not enough to kill my uncle, but he fell and hit his head on the kerb, suffered a brain injury and died of that brain injury two days later.
I asked whether the car couldn't brake automatically when it detects an obstacle. Father said some cars have that feature and some don't. I asked why some cars have it and some don't. Father said that because there is no government regulation obliging all cars to be equipped with that feature, manufacturers fit it if they like and don't if they don't. There are even manufacturers that advertise that feature, but when they bring the cars to our country they remove it to reduce costs, because they know our country has no strict regulation requiring that feature.
I asked whether it would increase costs a lot to fit that feature to each car. Father said the cost would not be much more.
I asked who has the power to order that cars must be fitted with that feature before they are allowed on the road, to avoid regrettable accidents. Father said the Minister of Transport has the power to give the order.
I asked whether, if the Minister ordered that all cars must be fitted with the automatic braking feature for obstacles, cars that did not already have it could be fitted with it. My father said it was entirely possible, if car owners were given a timetable and the time needed.
I asked whether there would be anything wrong in my writing a letter asking the Minister to order that every car be fitted with automatic braking. Father said there was nothing wrong, but that I was so small that probably no one would care to read my letter.
I thought about it for a week and decided to write to you to see whether you would care. If you do, please ask someone to send me a message; my email is
conyeubome@gmail.com
I believe you will care about my letter because you are a Minister after all.
Going to school is really hard for me now: my father is in prison, my mother has to look after my little brother, my aunt cries all day, my uncle is gone, so no one takes me to school. I have to walk by myself, crossing many busy roads, wishing in my heart only that cars had automatic braking so that I wouldn't be hit by a car, so that after school I could get home safely to my mother and my brother.
In the old days, when automatic braking technology didn't exist, we couldn't blame you, sir. Now that technology exists, and if we still refuse to fit it to cars, then we are truly at fault. A human life is not a simple matter. Please give the order soon, sir. I am waiting for your order day by day. 🚙"
Or was it written by many people?