merrymadscientist wrote:
I was thinking about this recently. Obviously there are few people who have a problem with people receiving organs from someone who has died naturally. However, I saw this philosophy problem on the bbc website and took it a step further.
The original problem was about when it might or might not be OK to kill/let die one person to save the lives of more than one person. For example, would it be morally OK to kill one healthy person who had no friends or relatives, in order to save the lives of 5 people needing organs who would die without them. I think most people say no in this case.
What if it's to save the President of the United States? Do the so-called "interests of the country" reign supreme to that of any individual?
I suspect the SS will see to it that way.
merrymadscientist wrote:
Then the problem went on to say that if you were a train driver and you saw ahead of you 5 people tied to the track and there was no way of stopping the train from killing them, apart from taking a diverting line which would then run over and kill a single person, would it be morally right to divert the train and hence save 4 lives. In this case most people choose to divert, but which (if any) is morally right, and why is this situation so different from the one above?
Couldn't you argue that the five people tied to the track weren't supposed to be there in the first place, therefore you shouldn't have to bear the responsibility for killing them, at least as much as you would for the one person you would end up killing if you were to divert the train? How they got there and why is a different matter though, and the people who tied them there should really bear the blame for it.
merrymadscientist wrote:
I was thinking about this recently. Obviously there are few people who have a These types of questions are interesting in themselves, basically because it is impossible for us to calculate the value of a life, or of certain lives against others. However I was wondering this.
What if I (a healthy and fit 30 year old female) decided that I'd had enough of life and I wanted to die, but also to donate my organs, therefore saving 5 lives (of people who presumably want to live a lot more than I do). I wouldnt expect any money or anything for it, but for the organ transplants to work, I would have to die by a means and in a place where it was possible to immediately remove the organs and retransplant them (so I couldnt just commit suicide by any means in a private place). Would this extremely altruistic act be morally right?
That's a decision you'll have to make by yourself. Save everybody else the moral dilemma and psychological burden of it.
06 Dec 2008, 6:48 pm
