Moral Dilemma

I got this idea off of Buzzfeed; please answer honestly, and imagine yourself in the scenario! Do not choose anything except for the answers provided, please. Also, it'd be great if you could explain why you chose what you chose. It's interesting to see these kinds of things.


Scenario 1:
You are a railyard worker, standing by the tracks near a lever that can switch the track, causing whatever train or trolley that is currently on the track to switch to another one. All of a sudden, you see a runaway trolley, barreling down the track. Down along the line are five people, completely unaware of the trolley that will surely kill them if it hits them.
You, however, have the choice to step in! You can- heroically, of course- step in and pull the lever, switching the track, changing the trolley's course, and leaving the five people blissfully unharmed. You cannot shout for them to get off or push them off; you can only choose to pull the lever.. or leave it alone and willingly kill five people.
These five people are completely normal citizens; they are not criminals.
Do you pull the lever?


Scenario 2:
Imagine the same scenario. You are still a railyard worker, and there is still a changeable track, with five unaware people about to be hit by a trolley that will surely kill them.
You still have the option to pull the lever.
However, there is one person on the other track. You don't know them and they are an average, peaceful citizen, just like the five on the other track. You cannot talk, you cannot push them out of the way. You can either pull the lever and kill one innocent person, you leave it as it is and kill five innocent people.
Do you pull the lever?


Scenario 3:
You are a railyard worker, and there are still five, innocent people on a track facing their impending doom with a blissful obliviousness. In fact, this scenario is quite similar to scenario two. However, on the other track, instead of there being a random stranger, you see an immediate relative or a loved one.
Do you leave the lever and kill five innocent people, sparing your loved one?
Or do you pull the lever and save five innocent people, killing your loved one?


My Answers:

Scenario 1- I pull the lever, obviously. I'm saving people's lives at no extra cost.

Scenario 2- I pull the lever. I would be stricken with sadness and inevitable bouts of depression afterwards, and probably be mentally traumatized and scarred for the rest of my life, but I would rather keep five people alive as compared to one person. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.


Scenario 3- Here is where I become a bit hypocritical. I said before that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, yes?
Not in this case.
Of course, this depends on the immediate relative. If it was my father, I would consider pulling the lever.
If it was, however, my mother, I would not. I could not. I am twelve and my mother is the only relative who isn't an elder, who speaks perfect English, who is related to me, left in America. She is all I have- if she died, I would be helpless. Not only that, but she has a big family. She has sisters and brothers and a mother and a father, and a niece and a nephew that love her. She has a family that loves her. How could I knowingly tear that away from them?
Then again, how could I even possibly tear that away from the five other people? They probably have families of their own; mothers and fathers and loved ones who would miss them terribly if they were gone.
I would leave the lever and save my mother, but I would probably become depressed and traumatized soon after. If I seem emotionally weak- I am, really. But I couldn't deal with the absence of my mother. Maybe I'm selfish- maybe this is hypocritical and just for my own good, but I could not take the life of my mother, out of all people. I would rather kill myself.




Alright! I'd love to see your responses to this; it's very interesting, and it caused me to think a lot about myself and other people.

 

Well...creepy...but as I earlier argued

Do nothing

 

Pull all the levers.

 

We were just talking about this not even two hours ago, and I swear nobody was reading buzzfeed

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 22, 2016, Original Post Date: Mar 22, 2016 ---

As I said earlier, if you did nothing, wouldn't that just make you a tacit supporter of what's going to happen? in which case you'd be as guilty as stabbing all five people yourself.

 

Honestly, I would pull the lever in the first two and not do it in the third one. I would probably pretend like I couldn't react in time. I know this isn't morally right, but that's probably what I would end up doing in that situation. But like you said, it depends on who it is. If it's someone I really cared about, I would pretend like I couldn't react in time.

The exact same scenarios were used. What.

 

Here is a Harvard lecture that specifically asks the same questions, and goes into the reasoning that we use when facing these dilemnas. I highly recommend watching this video and the other 11 videos in his Justice series!

 

On mobile, but google "Radiolab - Morality" it examines the trolley question scientifically, it was cool.

 

I would only pull the lever the first time.
If you pull it the second and third time you're probably going to prison for manslaughter.
yep.

 

Sorry if it seems like I'm copying anyone; I didn't realize this was already talked about! I just thought it'd be interesting.

 

This appeared as a moral dilemma cause at first it was weird though I swore to eliminate, the worst of the plague that devoured society, it's true, I was vague on the how so how can it be that you, have shown me the light?

Props to people who sang that in their heads while reading

First off, I would quit my job. I do not want to work for the rails. But I'd probably only pull the first time, because the second time you are actively killing someone if you pull it and I couldn't live with myself and would likely be tok petrified in fear to pull it anyway. I would have to let it go the third time, I'm not a saint or a sociopath. I would probably end up too traumatized by the event if i had pulled on the 2nd or 3rd but if I didn't do anything I probably could have let it go after therapy
I hate myself for feeling that way. But I'm never going to work on the rails so you all are safe if you decide to hang out on the rails for no reason.

 

No! Not at all--it was just that some friends and I were talking about this in a private conversation right before you posted this, and these exact scenarios were used. Plus none of us reads buzzfeed.