I've made this post now three times. Now that we've got a new crop of students, it's fun to throw it out there again. It always produces interesting answers. For my old bloggers, I'm curious if your answers to any of these questions has changed. (And, of course, if they have changed, why do you think that is?)
So here it is...
In the following scenario imagine you are in some weird situation wherein you can only save one of the the two options given in each question. There is no possible way to save both, nor would sacrificing yourself help in any way towards saving them and they will both die. If you do nothing, they will both die (and, I suppose, that is an option). You know that when you save one of them, the other will most certainly die (or be destroyed). Assume there is no other relevant information than that given for each question (i.e., in the child or adult question, assume they have the same status otherwise in all ways that may affect your decision, the only difference being that one is a child and one is an adult). You can only rescue one of each of the following, which do you save?
a) A child or an adult
b) A stranger or your dog
c) Your entire family or the entire canine species
d) A bottle with the cure for cancer or your brother/sister
e) Lassie or A Convicted Murderer/Rapist
f) Your spouse or a Nobel Laureate
g) A petry dish with 15 fertilized human eggs or 1 small child
h) A dog or a rat
i) A dog or a fish
j) A dog or a jellyfish
k) A dog or a human being on life support who has been declared "brain dead"
l) Your spouse or the greatest artist of all time (in your favorite genre)
m) A young child you don't know or a 95-year old adult that you know well
n) A stranger or the greatest piece of art ever created by human hands
o) A dog or a human being on life support in a perpetual coma (with no chance of ever coming out of the coma, although they are not technically brain dead).
p) Lassie or Hitler
q) 1 of your fellow soldiers from your unit or 25 injured enemy soldiers who have surrendered
Perhaps we can give two answers to each (if they are different): 1) what do you think you would actually do and 2) what do you think should or ought to do.
Now, after you've answered a) through q) can you provide some kind of principles or basis upon which you are guiding your decision making? Are the decisions consistent with one another? Are the principles consistent?
I think what is most fascinating about this exercise is that we are able to even answers these questions. That reveals, to me anyway, that we have incredible reserves of intuitions on these weird moral questions. Why is that? The difficult thing to do (and the profitable thing to do) is to try to "mine" those intuitions and see what is guiding them. Again: why do you answer the way you do on these??
Have fun.
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7 comments:
1.) If I could only rescue one of each of the following, the bolded answer is the one I would save.
a) A child or an adult
b) A stranger or your dog
c) Your entire family or the entire canine species
d) A bottle with the cure for cancer or your brother/sister
e) Lassie or A Convicted Murderer/Rapist
f) Your spouse or a Nobel Laureate
g) A petry dish with 15 fertilized human eggs or 1 small child
h) A dog or a rat
i) A dog or a fish
j) A dog or a jellyfish
k) A dog or a human being on life support who has been declared "brain dead"
l) Your spouse or the greatest artist of all time (in your favorite genre)
m) A young child you don't know or a 95-year old adult that you know well
n) A stranger or the greatest piece of art ever created by human hands
o) A dog or a human being on life support in a perpetual coma (with no chance of ever coming out of the coma, although they are not technically brain dead).
p) Lassie or Hitler
q) 1 of your fellow soldiers from your unit or 25 injured enemy soldiers who have surrendered
These answers were chosen for various reasons. For instance, when it came down to a human vs. human, I would chose the human I had the most responsibility/attachment to (and therefore, placed no emphasis on their achievements, that is to say in this instance I valued the human lives equally). The decisions between a child and a more grown person stems back to the idea of a sinking ship and sending the women and children to the lifeboats first (regardless of attachment or relationship). Other than traditional Western ideals, I cannot really identify a reason for this. While inconsistent with my previous decisions in two choices I actually chose a dog over a human. This is because when I came to the question about Hitler and how little I valued his life compared to that of an animal (as well as recognized the evil he was still capable of perpetrating), I realized my bias and went back to change the one involving the dog vs. murder/rapist (initially I had selected the human, but I changed this to the dog). This stems from my own personal bias towards for "evil" people, especially in comparison to the innocence of an animal. When numbers were involved I chose to save the greater number of people (regardless of attachment) sort of a "greater good" premise. This trend was not followed in the question involving the petry dish of embryos opposed to a baby, because they are merely cells and not a living creature.
2.) If I could only rescue one of each of the following, the bolded answer is the one I feel I should save.
a) A child or an adult
b) A stranger or your dog
c) Your entire family or the entire canine species
d) A bottle with the cure for cancer or your brother/sister
e) Lassie or A Convicted Murderer/Rapist
f) Your spouse or a Nobel Laureate
g) A petry dish with 15 fertilized human eggs or 1 small child
h) A dog or a rat
i) A dog or a fish
j) A dog or a jellyfish
k) A dog or a human being on life support who has been declared "brain dead"
l) Your spouse or the greatest artist of all time (in your favorite genre)
m) A young child you don't know or a 95-year old adult that you know well
n) A stranger or the greatest piece of art ever created by human hands
o) A dog or a human being on life support in a perpetual coma (with no chance of ever coming out of the coma, although they are not technically brain dead).
p) Lassie or Hitler
q) 1 of your fellow soldiers from your unit or 25 injured enemy soldiers who have surrendered
In looking at what I should do, I chose what resulted in the greatest good, or human life (regardless of what opinion of the human was held or the "quality" of their life). In instances where it was a similar life (human vs. human or animal vs. animal) there really is no distinction so I chose the one that I would have the most attachment to (or it was merely arbitrary).
The italics are my picks:
a) A child or an adult
b) A stranger or your dog
c) Your entire family or the entire canine species
d) A bottle with the cure for cancer or your brother/sister
e) Lassie or A Convicted Murderer/Rapist
f) Your spouse or a Nobel Laureate
g) A petry dish with 15 fertilized human eggs or 1 small child
h) A dog or a rat
i) A dog or a fish
j) A dog or a jellyfish
k) A dog or a human being on life support who has been declared "brain dead"
l) Your spouse or the greatest artist of all time (in your favorite genre)
m) A young child you don't know or a 95-year old adult that you know well
n) A stranger or the greatest piece of art ever created by human hands
o) A dog or a human being on life support in a perpetual coma (with no chance of ever coming out of the coma, although they are not technically brain dead).
p) Lassie or Hitler
q) 1 of your fellow soldiers from your unit or 25 injured enemy soldiers who have surrendered
i have a lot of dogs listed, but dogs are pretty great, even when they are matched up with strangers. as far as the sanctity of human life goes, i picked the thing that i would have a harder time living without, i.e. my spouse over a great artist - i really struggled with the cancer vs. my brother, becuase i have three brothers, all whom i'm very close to and love very much - it's tough to look beyond the emotion of the situation and act in the "greater good" but i picked cancer becuase i would hope that my brother would pick cancer over me given the same decision. with the soldier question, i took the stance of a combatant in the heat of battle, and made my decision over what i would do to help my side in the most direct manner. while saving the lives of 25 over 1 may be the ethically "correct" or morally superior decision, i had to respond honestly, and that's what i believe i would do.
I think I’d save these ones
a) A child
b) A stranger
c) Your entire family
d) your brother/sister
e) Lassie
f) Your spouse
g) A 1 small child
h) A dog
i) A dog
j) A dog
k) A dog
l) Your spouse
m) A young child you don't know
n) A stranger
o) A dog
p) Lassie
q) 1 of your fellow soldiers
In many of these, what I think I ought to do is different than what I think I’d actually do if put in any of these situations. For example, I know that saving the cure for cancer is better for the world than saving my sister, but I if I ever faced this I would want to save the person I know and love and try to ignore the others. Maybe that’s selfish, but the thought of killing my sister is harder to bear than the idea of killing hundreds of people I don’t know. I honestly believe my answers would change depending on the situation, but that I can make any sort of decision without context really is hard to understand. For all of these I tended to save the one I knew or if I knew neither then the one that I thought had the most potential to do good in the world. That is the only rationale I can think of.
What I would save…
a) A child
b) your dog
c) Your entire family
d) your brother/sister
e) Lassie
f) Your spouse
g) 1 small child
h) A dog
i) A dog
j) A dog
k) A dog
l) Your spouse
m) a 95-year old adult that you know well
n) A stranger
o) A dog
p) Lassie
q) 1 of your fellow soldiers from your unit
I based my decisions on which of the 2 things is more important to me. In cases where it was 2 people, it was the person that I knew better or that I had a closer connection to. In cases where it was a person and some inanimate object, I picked the person. In cases where it was the dog or someone with no value whatsoever, like someone in a coma or someone who is brain dead, or someone who is only an evil to society, like Hitler, I picked the dog. This may seem controversial, but to me, someone who is on life support is merely being kept alive, they aren’t actually living. God has appointed a time for everyone to die, and by keeping people alive when they should be dead, we are going against his will. How long do you keep the person on life support alive if they have no chance of recovering? This question perhaps raises arguments on the whole “pulling the plug” question, but in my mind, it’s simple. If we’re meant to be dead, there’s no point in keeping someone alive through a machine. Between 2 animals, I picked the one that would mean more to me and that has more benefit to people in general, which in all the instances presented above is the dog. I think if there were a choice between a dog and a horse, for instance, it would be a much more difficult decision.
I would save...
a)a child
b)a stranger
c)family
d)bottle with cure for cancer
e)lassie
f)spouse
g)1 child
h)dog
i)dog
j)dog
k)human on life support
l)spouse
m)young child
n)stranger
o)human on life support
p)lassie
q)fellow soldier
Alot of my answers were chosen for different reasons, I never had a set criteria. When it came down to human v human, I chose the one I was more attached to emotionally or in the case of ones involving the child, the one who has not had the chance to live a fulfilling life, hence I would always choose the child. I chose the two people on life support over the dog because if a dog dies, you are sad for a little while, but then you get over it and the dog is easily replaced, but a human life, no matter how dead they are, is not replacable. I debated with the soldier one for a while because the enemy is just like us(they have families, values and such) just fighting for a different cause. I'd like to say I would save the 25 enemy soldiers but in the heat of battle I really think I would save my own guy.
a) A CHILD or an adult
b) A STRANGER or your dog
c) YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY or the entire canine species
d) A BOTTLE WITH THE CURE FOR CANCER or your brother/sister.
e) Lassie or A CONVICTED MURDERER/RAPIST.
f) YOUR SPOUSE or a Nobel Laureate
g) A petry dish with 15 fertilized human eggs or 1 SMALL CHILD
h) A DOG or a rat
i) A DOG or a fish
j) A DOG or a jellyfish
k) A DOG or a human being on life support who has been declared "brain dead"
l) YOUR SPOUSE or the greatest artist of all time (in your favorite genre)
m) A YOUNG CHILD YOU DON'T KNOW or a 95-year old adult that you know well
n) A STRANGER or the greatest piece of art ever created by human hands
o) A dog or A HUMAN BEING ON LIFE SUPPORT IN A PERPETUAL COMA(WITH NO CHANCE OF EVER COMING OUT OF THE COMA, ALTHOUGH THEY ARE NOT TECHNICALLY BRAIN DEAD).
p) Lassie or HITLER
q) 1 OF YOUR FELLOW SOLDIERS FROM YOUR UNIT or 25 injured enemy soldiers who have surrendered
Obviously I have rationale for each choice I made but I will only explain the more controversial ones for time's sake.
d) It is what my brother and sister would want.
E and P) With a murderer and Hitler I feel it is almost more essential to help them because they are not ready to die (aka based upon my religious beliefs I think they are headed the wrong way after death and I don't wish that upon anyone, even Hitler).
G) To tell the truth I am not entirely certain as to why I chose the way I did but I think it is the fact that a petry dish seems inanimate for my tiny brain.
K) The human is being kept alive by artificial means and will not recover, thus is dead already in my mind.
M) The old man/woman has lived more than most of us can hope for and would likely want me to make the decision I did (if they didn't they probably aren't the type of person I associate with).
Q) Contradicts my primary train of thought but I would believe that we are fighting for good and they for bad, thus if we win, good also wins. My decision is probably not the the moral one, I am simply trying to be honest.
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