Riverboat wrote :
"So given this situation, did the Captain make the right or wrong decision? The wrong one, because we should all do whatever we can to arrest this decline of common sense (actually, an elemination of common sense) whenever we can. This takes guts. We should encourage people to DO THE RIGHT THING, and support them when they do."
The Captain made a decision and in that situation the Captain is the final arbiter. In any event that decision was correct because it was in accordance with the companies rules which the Captain is charged with ensuring are, in all normal situations, complied with. There was nothing extraordinary about this womans situation. The Captain is in any event charged with ensuring the safety of everybody on board. Safety is not enhanced by a woman struggling with two infants / young children who she cannot adequately secure without enlisting the help of other passengers. In an emergency those same volunteers or willing conscriptees may not be able to ensure the safety of the young child or infant and may therefore compromise the safety of other people around them. In fact common sense would actually be to remove the passengers. Of course natural human compassion would wish for a better outcome or resolution, but that is another matter and when it comes down to hard facts, as ultimately it must, irrelevant.
The woman was not complying with the conditions of carriage. It is very likely that as a result of an unfortunate set of circumstances she found herself in that situation, but nevertheless that is where the fault lies, like it or not.