Which would you do? Either? Neither? Both?

by onacruse 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  onacruse

  A thought experiment:

  Scene A: Imagine you're at the controls of a trolley and the brakes have failed. You're approaching a fork in the track at top speed. On the left side, 5 rail workers are fixing the track. One the right side, there is 1 worker. If you do nothing, the trolley will bear left and kill the 5. The only way to save the 5 is for you to steer to the right...which will certainly kill the 1.

  Scene B: Now, imagine you're watching the runaway trolley from a footbridge. This time there is no fork in the track, but the 5 workers are there, facing certain death. You're standing next to a really big guy, and you know that if you sneak up and push him off the footbridge and into the path of the trolley, his body will stop the trolley and save the 5 men.

  ??
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  Odrade

  Just for clarification... are you the big guy?
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  Lady Lee

  Scene A - Steer right and hope he jumps - I would opt for the lesser of the two

  Scene B - Neither - I wouldn't be able to sacrifice the one and deliberately push him
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  Uzzah

  Scene A - I don't like the options but if those were the only possibilities, I would be directly responsible for killing. I would likely veer off and take out the one man. Better to only kill one than 5. Simple logic.

  Scene B - If I were to push the one man into the path I would be directly responsible for killing a man. If I did nothing I would not be directly responsible for anyone's death but would be around to assist those other people hit. Perhaps one might sacrifice him/her self if the situation warranted but that wasn't one of your options.
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  FirstInLine

  Scene A: Imagine you're at the controls of a trolley and the brakes have failed. You're approaching a fork in the track at top speed. On the left side, 5 rail workers are fixing the track. One the right side, there is 1 worker. If you do nothing, the trolley will bear left and kill the 5. The only way to save the 5 is for you to steer to the right...which will certainly kill the 1.

  Fate has delivered a cruel hand to the 5 workers. Fate has not done so for the 1. If I switch the track I am altering that one person's destiny to his demise when he would otherwise not have been harmed. I have no right to do that. I would let the 5 die. 1 life is as important as 5 and fate dealt a blow to the 5.

  Scene B: Now, imagine you're watching the runaway trolley from a footbridge. This time there is no fork in the track, but the 5 workers are there, facing certain death. You're standing next to a really big guy, and you know that if you sneak up and push him off the footbridge and into the path of the trolley, his body will stop the trolley and save the 5 men.

  Of course I would do nothing. It is roughly the same scenario although I am sure some idiot in his Ivory tower at Harvard would probably say that in scene A its ok to kill the 1 guy and in scene B its not.
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  WhyNow2000

  Pray to Jehovah and get the food at the appropriate time from GB.
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  Scully

  Scene A: If I'm at the controls of a trolley, I'd use the warning system (bells, whistles, horns) at my disposal to warn everyone without diverting my course, while at the same time applying the emergency brake, which I still have a moral and ethical duty to ATTEMPT even if they are in a state of mechanical failure. BTW, if you're talking about a train type track, the switching is dependent on external controls on the track itself, so you'd have no choice about the direction you'd end up taking.

  Scene B: As an observer, it wouldn't be right for me to sacrifice one person for the life of another. That's not my decision to make, unless it's my own life that I choose to sacrifice on behalf of another. I'd probably kick myself for leaving my digital camera or camcorder somewhere else and not end up having a photographic record of the disaster to sell to the press.

  Love, Scully
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  fader

  Scenario One: I'd switch tracks and hit just the one.

  Scenario Two: I wouldn't do anything.

  Haven't we all thought about what we would do if we were about to get in a car accident and had the choice of either swerving and hitting a pedestrian (probably killing him/her) or having a head on collision and running the risk of personal injury/death? It's a tough one for me actually, I'm not sure what I'd do. Probably swerve and hit the pedestrian, saving both my own sorry ass and the poor schmuck that would otherwise have the head-on collision with mne.
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  franklin J

  Ditto what Whynow2000 posted
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  Elsewhere

  I shall observe gawd's will unfold as gawd intended.