Morning's Minion at Vox Nova has been arguing that consequentialism, defined as "the notion that the morality of an act depends solely on a calculation of foreseeable consequences," is endemic in our society. Minion's latest on the subject lists seven examples of consequentialist argumentation and notes that most people would object to some but not all of the seven. Conclusion: "We are a consequentialist culture."
Consequentialist moral thinking goes beyond simply factoring in foreseeable consequences into the discernment of the morality of an act. I am sure Minion would have no problem with someone considering the effects his action may cause and avoiding an action if those effects would be bad. The key word in the definition of consequentialism is the adverb solely.
What a consequentialist morality admits is that any action can be justified based on the foreseeable consequences: abortion, stem-cell research, torture, nuking cities, you name it. It also assumes an arrogant pseudo-omniscience, an impossible certainty about the future. That acts have foreseeable consequences I grant, but I also know that our acts often (if not always) have unforeseeable and unintended consequences, thus making a consequentialist ethic and exercise in guess-work and gambling. Hardly a reliable system for ascertaining the morality of an act.
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