A train is rolling down the tracks. Up ahead the track divides into two different paths. One path leads to a dead end where the train and all the 50 passengers on it, will die. The other track leads to the death of your mother/sister/brother/father. Which path do you let the train travel? Does it matter if you know that those 50 individuals on the train are all on death row? What if among those 50 individuals was the President of the United States? What if they were just your average arrangement of citizens? At what point does it matter who those individuals are, or does it matter at all?
This is a question I would spend hours discussing in my business class in high school. I remember arguing that if the individuals were on death row anyway, that we might as well save my brother. My teacher argued, that the ethical decision would be to do what is best for the greater population, suggesting that saving 50 people no matter who they were would be better. The class didn't always agree, and that is when the debate started.
I am interested in what you have to say. What would you do with this train dilemma?
Thanks,
Rachel
And don't forget to take a bite.
I would most likely send the train down the dead end path that would end up saving my family despite who was on the train to begin with ... case settled.
ReplyDeleteIn the end it all comes down to who those 50 people are. If they were average citizens then i would have the train go down the path that lead to my family. However, if those 50 people are people that deserve death, then i would have the train head in their direction.
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ReplyDeleteI think if it was a split second decision most people would save their family. If the train was filled with people that were on death row there would be no question as to their fate. They were going to die anyway why not save people that may have many more years to live and who have not harmed anyone.
ReplyDeleteOooh!! I like your blog. And to answer your question, I would make the decision to save my family. Why? They are more precious to me than 50 strangers, although every life on the train is precious. This may sound a bit cold and callous, but blood come first.
ReplyDeleteyou're all a bunch of brooding fascists.
ReplyDeletethe only moral option in this situation is to do nothing and let the train take whichever branch of the track the switch is already pointed towards. the second that you touch the switch you are passing a value judgement on human life- never okay. deciding that a certain person (or group of people) is expendable is a prerequisite to genocide (think lebensraum). who's to say that one of those death row convicts wouldn't get a pardon and cure cancer? who's to say that a member of your family wont whack out and kill a bunch of people? but shit, it doesnt matter what they DO. they are people. you've got no right deciding who is worth more. let fate do his thing.
and then hope that batman shows up (didnt this scenario happen in a batman movie? cant remember)
To be honest... I love my family to death. They have givin me so much and have taught me the meaning of life. Teaching me how to love and to care. What is right from wrong. Sending the train their way would be insane... or would it? Even if the other way meant saving fifty death row inmates, that is fifty lives left to be touched. To be shown life's meaning and what it is like to truly love or care for an individual. Majority would rule in favor of ending fifty death row inmates if it were the case, however, isn't that why war exists? Thinking one should deserve a certain fate. Yeah they may have done things any normal human being would probably cringe and would demand revenge for, but are we any better by showing them hate and disgust. I know my family would end up in a place which I couldn't even begin to put into words. In my opinion why not keep the fifty people even if it happened to be death row inmates. Living on this earth is a little taste of hell anyway. Give those fifty souls a chance to influence other lives and if it happened to be convicts... show them that saving and cherishing a life is more meaningful...
ReplyDeletethat's very platonic, good points.
ReplyDeletealso- the death row convicts are probably going to hell, eh? and generally hell is portrayed as worse than the earth. so morally, it's superior to have the train hit your family who will go to heaven, thus giving the convicts a bit more time before they have to burn in everlasting fire etc. and your family gets out of this hellhole sooner and goes to heaven. it's a win-win =D
Logically working through this scenario is so much different than what the actual situation would be like. Right now, I'm wondering a lot of things. How old are the other passengers? Do they have their whole lives ahead of them? Are the old and feeble? Have they done anything to advance the cause of the human condition with their time on this earth if they are adults, or have they wasted their intellect?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement that making the decision to act one way or another is passing a value judgement on human life, which ideally, would never be done. But, the fact is that I am human.
If I was thrown into this situation and did not have time to think about it and decide what I would do, I think I would choose my family.
Not because I think this is necessarily the morally superior thing to do, but because I am human.
Do I have an option to save everyone on the train but myself?