@pschwede Well one thing i pointed out in another thread is that it isnt about the momentary happiness, it is about the happiness across all of time. Depriving someone of future happiness they would have had is also "evil" by the same thought pattern.

As for how we know that wont change to happy again, we dont... We **never** truly know if our actions are good or bad, since we can't see all outcomes. What we CAN do is have good intentions and use our best judgement to best achieve "good".

That means in the case you cited one would have to use their best judgement to determine if they are likely to change from sad to happy, then weight the likelihood of that judgment being correct, then based on that take the course of action they feel has the greatest liklihood of generating the most happiness. Yes you could be wrong, there is always a space between intent andreality in real life.