What Would You Do?

What would you do? (See below for scenario details)

  • I would sacrifice the little girl

    Votes: 8 57.1%

  • I would let the train run off the cliff

    Votes: 6 42.9%
  • Total voters
    14
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A train is about to run off a cliff and kill its 200 passengers. You arrive at the junction where you can switch the tracks so that the train is no longer heading off the cliff, but there is a catch: if you pull the lever the train will surely run over a little girl who is trapped on the railway lines. NOTE: assume for the sake of this scenario that there is nothing else you can possibly do. You can only allow the train to fall off the cliff, or save it by killing/sacrificing the little girl. Also assume that you do not know anyone on the train or the little girl, personally.

Please keep in mind that even though this is an extreme example, people are faced with such choices every day. Even though this is kind of a philosophical question, I am posting it in this section because I want to ask a further question: Which choice do you think is more compatible with your religious/spiritual beliefs (or lack thereof)? Please discuss this below.

While you ponder over your "choices", here's an appropriate soundtrack: ... In a Heartbeat
 
In a heartbeat, was my descision. The girl dies. And in my instant descision I have given her the biggest honour one can have.... Her life has been sacraficed for the good of 200..... Now, brother, that is a death, a good death. One we can only hope of for ourselves.
 
Bye bye little girl.

*sniff*

I hope you're happy now... ruined my whole day... thinking about that little girl.

It didn't have to end this way.

If only we'd maintain our infrastructure.



p.s. How many little girls were amongst the 200 "passengers"? Likely many more than one.
 
Kill the girl. I'd just pretend the girl was a little younger and that it was just a normal partial birth abortion.
 
Even if you let the train run over the little girl, you'd still have the problem of a runaway train to deal with. How many more people will it run over before it gets derailed? I'd derail it at the junction before it could go over the cliff, run anyone over, or find another cliff/broken bridge/collapsed tunnel/other hazard to run into that would put the passengers in peril again.
 
peri.gif
Sounds like an episode of the Perils of Pauline where a train bears down on her and she's tied to the tracks..

Watcha gonna do?

If it's a train load of horse manure I might save Pauline.. believing that the conductor can jump off in time.

Or if the train is full of people ..Gee. I'd save the train I guess and say goodbye to Pauline.

If the train is full of munitions destined to a dictator I'd save Pauline..

If Pauline is like a wenchy witch.. I'd save the train...Oh What to Do?
 
seattlegal said:
Even if you let the train run over the little girl, you'd still have the problem of a runaway train to deal with. How many more people will it run over before it gets derailed? I'd derail it at the junction before it could go over the cliff, run anyone over, or find another cliff/broken bridge/collapsed tunnel/other hazard to run into that would put the passengers in peril again.
Click to expand...

Always one isn't there lol.......
 
Alex P said:
Wow... I thought you'd of spared the girl, then talked to her about how her naked body in a pornographic way isn't wrong ;/
Click to expand...

No, this girl's body is not pornographic, but rather inconvenient in both circumstances, in the wrong place at the wrong time, which is why they are killed.
 
Supposing the train carried 200 passengers ... and they were all little girls?

Was the sentimental twist put in especially to confuse the issue?
The question is: This way, 1 dies, that way, 200 die.

Here's a tougher one for you: from real life
A coach driver is driving along the road when a car pulls out from a service station without looking. The coach driver has three options, go straight ahead and take out the car and the family inside it, steer into the service area, where there are cars and people milling around but the ground is level, or steer the other way off the road, into some deserted woodland, and a slope.

He chose the other way.
A friend of ours was a passenger on the coach, who had been sitting behind the driver (she was frightened of motorway driving, so took the coach). She phoned us to tell us she was trapped in a wrecked coach at the foot of a bank. We were talking to her on her mobile, calming her down, right up until we heard a fireman say, "you're gonna have to put the phone down now, love, we're going to cut you out."

She made it. They all did ... except the driver ... Emergency Services agreed it was a tough call, but the right one.

Thomas
 
^ Thanks, Thomas, for that example from a real life moral dilemma. I am always amazed at how these decisions are made in a split second and by ordinary citizens who are faced with extraordinary situations. The coach driver is a hero in my book.
 
Alex P said:
In a heartbeat, was my descision. The girl dies. And in my instant descision I have given her the biggest honour one can have.... Her life has been sacraficed for the good of 200..... Now, brother, that is a death, a good death. One we can only hope of for ourselves.
Click to expand...

What's so honorable about playing on the train tracks? And where are her parents when all of this is going on? I'd like to tie them to the tracks for allowing their daughter out of their sight. It's not a sacrifice, it's a stupidity of neglect.
 
the train is already going off the cliff without me doing anything.. i would leave it at its current course rather than kill an innocent by my own doing,.
 
I have the privilege of not having to answer the poll so I won't! However for the sake of this thread, I would exhaust every option possible to save everyone. If I can't I'll call for superman.
 
"

Consider this: In the grand scheme of things those 200 people would have died sooner or later anyway (everyone dies). But if you change the tracks, you are directly responsible for the death of the little girl. While the death of the 200 people in the train is not caused by you (or is it?)

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SG + Alex + Native + Thomas



@ SG

Hey hey hey, no breaking the rules!! "You can only allow the train to fall off the cliff, or save it by killing/sacrificing the little girl."

@ Alex

Its one thing to sacrifice your own life for 200 people (which does not really pose a "dilemma" at all)... but in this case you are not sacrificing yourself, but you are making that choice for someone else.

@ Native

But does man actually have the ability to calculate the "greater good"? For example, we have no way of knowing whether the little girl would have grown up to discover a cure to cancer. In which case our choice would have ended up preventing the "greater good" in the long run.

@ Thomas

That was heroic, and I agree with the choice he made. However, it is not the same because the third option left the possibility of everyone surviving the incident when in this case no such option exists.
 
Faithfulservant said:
the train is already going off the cliff without me doing anything.. i would leave it at its current course rather than kill an innocent by my own doing,.
Click to expand...

Yeah but the girl was already on the track as well... How many little girls would there be on the train?

What if we save the train and find out it was full or murderers?
 
mmm and if you were a determinist and believed in an omnipotent omniscient omnibenevolent G-d the outcome was 'meant to be' anyways?!
 
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