Consider the following situation: You are walking through the woods and come to
ID: 3499399 • Letter: C
Question
Consider the following situation:
You are walking through the woods and come to a clearing. You see 10 people standing at gun point. For our purposes, you know they are all equally innocent people (none deserve to die more than any other). The men with the guns inform you that they want you to pick one person that will die and then they will let the other 9 go free. If you do not choose, they all die. There are no other options such as choosing yourself (though a noble choice) or defeating the gunmen. Will you choose? If so, how? If not, how do you justify your decision?
Explanation / Answer
It depends on the ethical philosophy one follows. Most of the public policies are designed and guided by Utilitarian perspective which seeks to maximize the welfare along with the least amount of undesirable effects. Therefore in this case I would go with the same ethical principle and will choose one person to save nine of them. However the person who should be sacrificed should be chosen with fair process. I would withee let them draw random folded pages with death written on one, whoever gets the death one will die.