Foundations of Catholic Morality

Explain the validity of the moral principle, "A good end does not justify evil means to attain it." How is this sound norm often ignored?

"A good end does not justify evil means to attain it." This is a good rule to live by. Doing good is an important thing, but we can not do evil in our attempt to do good. The end does not justify the means. The goal is not to do more good than evil, the goal is to do as much good and as little evil as we can. Any evil we do is sin and harms our relationship with God. It is similar to what I tell my kids at work, "two wrongs do not make a right." Doing any kind of evil will simply never be a good thing!