Three Ethical Questions You May Have a Hard Time Answering

Perhaps you’re the type who often ponders philosophical, spiritual and ethical questions. Or maybe you’re typically more focused on questions like “What’s for dinner?” Either way, you likely have found yourself, and will find yourself again, faced with situations where the answer to the questions of what is right and ethical is not immediately clear.

With that in mind, I hope you never encounter situations anything like the following. But they do make for worthwhile contemplation; how you find yourself answering the questions can reveal a lot about you to you, and also a lot about others you discuss these questions with.

When you have read through and considered all three scenarios, head to the IntenseExperiences.com Forums to share your perspectives and read others’ perspectives on these scenarios.

Without further adieu:

Scenario A: The Trolley

A trolley car is hurling out of control on its track. A mad scientist has tied five people to the track ahead, and if the trolley continues on its path it will most definitely kill all five. There is a switch right next to you, and if you simply throw the switch you will divert the trolley car onto another track before it kills the five people. However, the mad scientist has tied one person to that other track, so if you throw that switch, the trolley will most definitely kill that one person.

BEFORE proceeding to Scenario B, answer this question:

- Do you choose to throw that switch in this situation? Why or why not?

(IMPORTANT NOTE: In all of these situations, you don’t know any of the people. And the choices you are given are the only choices available. You can’t call in Superman or Underdog, you can’t jump in front of the trolley, there is no time to untie anyone, and you can’t use The Law of Attraction to manifest a third track. It’s either one option or the other.)


Scenario B: The Trolley, Take Two

A trolley car is hurling out of control on its track. A mad scientist has tied five people to the track ahead, and if the trolley continues on its path it will most definitely kill all five. There is a person standing right in front of you, and you know that if you push that person in front of the trolley that person will most definitely be killed, but doing so will most certainly stop the trolley well before it kills the five people tied to the track.

- Do you choose to push that person in this situation? Why or why not?

- If you chose to save the lives of five people at the expense of one in Scenario A, but not in this scenario, or vice-versa, why?


Scenario C: The Organ Dilemma

(While I have seen the trolley scenarios before, I first encountered this one in Steven E. Landsburg, Ph.D.’s wonderful and highly recommended book, The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics. I am posting my own revision of his revision. Consider it, and then consider your answer in relation to how you answered the previous two scenarios.)

A mad scientist has captured six healthy people and removed and discarded a different vital organ from each of the first five. He is about to remove a vital organ from the sixth person when he panics and runs away.

A highly skilled surgeon enters the room. She calls you, because you are her boss, and explains to you that in the absence of a healthy transplant, each of the first five people will die within the hour. The only source of healthy organs is the sixth person. She is fully capable of harvesting the organs from this sixth person and transplanting them to save the lives of the other five, but of course that sixth person will die if she does so. It is your decision to make, and she asks you what she should do.

- Do you tell her to harvest the organs from the sixth person to save the other five? Why or why not?

- If you chose to save the lives of five people at the expense of another life in Scenario A and/or B, but not in this scenario, why?

- And does it change your choice in any and all of the scenarios if that one person who would die to save five other lives was someone you love? Or if that person you love was one of the five people in each of the scenarios? If this changes your answer, why?

When you have read through and considered these scenarios, head to the IntenseExperiences.com Forums to share your perspectives and read others’ perspectives on these ethical questions!

And if you are curious how your friends and family would respond to these questions, feel free to cut and paste the URL of this page and send it on to them!