 According to Nozick, our core reason for abstaining from murder is not that abstention advances the goal of minimizing murders. Indeed, if that were our reason to eschew murder, A should not eschew murdering B if that is the only way that he can prevent W from murdering X, Y, and Z. Rather, Nozick’s deontological claim is that the status that each individual has as an end-in-himself morally constrains each other agent’s conduct toward those individuals. Both A and W are morally precluded from the (unprovoked) killing of B, X, Y, and Z (and of each other). W triply violates this side constraint when he kills X, Y, and Z; but A abides by this constraint only if he abstains from killing B—even if A’s killing of B would (somehow) prevent W’s killing of X, Y, and Z.