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Would You Rather Kill 5 Or "Kill" One?


80hours

Would you pull the lever?  

27 members have voted

  1. 1. Would you pull the lever?

    • Yes.
      21
    • No.
      6


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Ace ♠ At ♠ Archery

I wouldn't pull the lever because those 5 people have accepted they are going to die and that 1 person thinks they have survived. Also that one person is alone and terrified, the other people are together. The 5 people have a chance of escaping or untying each other. By pulling the lever you are saying one person is worth less than 5 other people, in that situation I would feel awful to pull the lever on that one person who is going to die alone. Also those 5 people could be elderly and that one person could be a small child. It's more cruel to pull the lever than it is to let the 5 people die.

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In that particular case, I guess I'd pull it, but the details make a difference whether I'd come down on the utilitarian or opposing side.  For example, I don't think doctors should be allowed to kill a healthy innocent person to provide five life-saving organ transplants.

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Something I forgot to mention...

 

You are not killing anyone.

 

Either way, no matter whether you pull the lever or not (unless you're responsible for those people being there and/or the train coming along in the first place when you know that there are people there who are unaware of the train approaching). Damage will be done anyway; the only choice you have is to limit the damage or not. That doesn't mean that you caused that damage, which is what "killing" implies to me.

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WithAnOunceOfDignity

Does it not depend on who the "one" is? People are not all equally valuable.

 

If there are 5 regular people and the 1 is Elon Musk or some other important, highly productive/advantageous person, I'd obviously save Musk over the 5. The quantity is irrelevant. This kind of thought experiment incorrectly assumes that the answerer views all lives at a flat rate of utility.

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Hermit Advocate

Pull the lever Kronk. 

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Hermit Advocate

Unless the one person is my cat. Then let them die. 

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