do you mean "Z. Cavaricci" nice?

I mean nice nice

They make strong men cry in train stations.

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If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

That is a substantially different scenario. He'd either kill me too or I'd be sitting on his unconscious body waiting for the police to arrive looking every man in the crowd that gathers directly in the eye and profanely questioning the integrity of their spine and their right to membership in our gender.

Going back to scenario #1, I'd also question the intelligence of five people who would stand on the tracks in the face of an oncoming vehicle. I'm assuming we're not dealing with deaf victims here...

If the only thing getting wet is the pants, then the water is probably less than 3 feet deep. For a kid to be bad enough, conciously bad enough, bad with intent to be bad; then they are almost certainly going to be old enough (and big enough) to not drown in less than 3" of water.

Actually, the point of my post is to emphasize that the questions are hypothetical. So you have to answer with just the facts given, and you are only saying what you THINK you would do. The point of the discussion is to explore what you think. No way to KNOW what you would actually do unless the situation presented itself exactly (and in the limited fashion) as described here.

So answer based on what you know. Forget about who they are or what you would like to know about them or screaming for them to move or all that. Just answer the question based on what was given. Think of it as a little game.

As far as how we would behave if one of these situations actually arose; #1 seems the only tricky one. Most don't really KNOW what they'd do. Kind of like people who KNOW what they'd do if they won the lottery. With no exposure to anything like such an experience, they don't know - they are only guessing. If you need proof, consider that something like 50 to 75% of $1M+ winners are broke in 2 years. Wonder how many of them had that in their KNOWN plans?

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Could be cause for consideration. I've never owned anything that nice.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

The choices of "permissible," "obligatory," and "forbidden" suggest more than just what I think I would do, though, don't they? To me, they suggest what I think society expects me to do, or what I would expect others in that situation to do.

In 2 I'd attempt the rescue. In 3 I'd leave the healthy patient's organs in their original container. In 1, I'd probably end up letting the five get hit because I'd be paralyzed with indecision.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

1. This is the really hard one. It cannot be obligatory since that would be to force someone to commit murder. Let's assume that none of the people are supposed to be on the tracks. Trains always have the raight of way on the railroad even if the time table hasn't listed anything at that time. You may flip the switch (permissable). However, if the one person is a worker who do maintenece work on a time that he was assured to be safe, then he got the right to keep living. In this case, do not flip the switch (forbidden), there is no real difference between 1 & 3 in that case, it's the same thing.

2. obligatory

3. forbidden

Actually, a moral dilemma could be even worse if you are forced to kill some people or all will die, like if you are in an enclosed space with oxygen running out faster then help can arrive. Let's also say that none will survive if you die since you are the only one who knows how to operate some critical machinery. So whould you take up that wrench and start smashing in skulls? A key point would be that the longer you delay before you start breaking skulls, the more you would have to kill. This could be even more interesting if all the other people are kids.

An alternative could be if you are to decide if you want to nuke a city or a terrorist in the city may have time to disperse a bio weapon capable of wiping out humanity. Sure, you could try to find and capture the terrorist but the only way to be sure of getting rid of the bio weapon in time would be to nuke the city. It could be even more interesting if there is a possibility that your intelligence is faulty and there is no bio weapon at all, it may even be a rumor created by a terrorist in hope that you would nuke a city.

Sometimes, an inability to do horrible things may result in even greater horrors. Are we ready to do the dirty work or do we prefer to stand by ignoring the comming disaster?

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"-UFO detected, interceptor launched"

You have a twisted mind.

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"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

I do indeed....

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"-UFO detected, interceptor launched"

Have you seen Fail-Safe X-COM?

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N6MAA10816
Faber '62 ΔTX
Are you a Bright?

Errm... maybe they're too tight then?

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N6MAA10816
Faber '62 ΔTX
Are you a Bright?

One of my points but you said it a lot better!
Btw, not really wanting to derail the topic (groan.. but is that an option for no. 1 ?!), is that true about the lottery winners? ... I KNOW I wouldn't be broke.. I think...

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N6MAA10816
Faber '62 ΔTX
Are you a Bright?

As a matter of fact I have, I saw it on the TV a while ago. An interesting movie that tuched a subject few filmmakers dare to. It doesn't chicken out of the problem, the world is saved but at a huge cost whe the president is forced to destroy one of his own cities.

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"-UFO detected, interceptor launched"

The classic movie 'Abandon Ship' with Tyrone Power also raises interesting questions about choices we have to make sometimes.

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If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.

A few years ago, I watched Some Mother's Son in a college class. (Not actually my own class, but that's another story.) Afterward, there was a class discussion about the choice our main character was presented with: do you sacrifice your child to their own beliefs, or do you step in and let them live, knowing they may never speak to you again after?

What I found interesting was that, for the most part, it was the parents in the group who didn't know what they would do. Not only that, but the person I distrusted most seemed surprised that there could possibly be any debate. I maintain to this day that, until you're in the situation, you don't know how you'd act in any time of crisis.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Not surprising at all. The parents have lived through more situations and are more likely to recognize that until you are faced with something extraordinary, you really don't know. The younger you are (more accurately, the fewer situations you've lived thru), the more likely you are to think you know what you would do.

Recognizing the uncertainty of your own behaviors is the beginning of awareness that leads to wisdom. It is true about the lottery, which makes sense. It's a situation where someone is experiencing something totally out of context with the life they've lived up until that moment (for almost all winners - rich people rarely play the lottery).

Another good example are professional athletes. The rate of drug abuse, violence, criminal activity, etc is way out of line from the general population. It's exactly what you'd expect when people suddenly find themselves in a situation for which their life experiences provided them very little preparation. You just can't be sure what you'll do until you do it.

Sign in our local Dairy Queen:

Hire a teenager,
While they still know everything.

(How come my smilies end up in the title bar instead of where I click them?)

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

#1 Would be Permissable, because no matter what or who the people were, most anyone would want to save five then one.


# 2 Obligatory....very obvious answer.


#3 Forbidden. Because i believe an organ can be donated only if it does not endanger the donors life.



Titana.

Maybe because you click them before inserting any text?



Titana.