Would you??????????

The runaway trolley car is hurtling down a track where it will kill five people. You are standing on a bridge above the track and, aware of the imminent disaster, you decide to jump on the track to block the trolley car. Although you will die, the five people will be saved.

Just before your leap, you realise that you are too light to stop the trolley. Next to you, a fat man is standing on the very edge of the bridge. He would certainly block the trolley, although he would undoubtedly die from the impact. A small nudge and he would fall right onto the track below. No one would ever know. would you push him?

The philosophical puzzle is this: Why is it acceptable to sacrifice the one person in The Runaway Trolley Car but not in The Fat Man case? Can it ever be morally acceptable to kill an innocent person if that is the only way to save many? Should some actions - such as deliberately killing innocent people against their wishes - never be done? The last thought experiment explores this idea:

It's interesting to compare this with the Iraq war - was it right through intervention to kill as many people as we have in order to save a far greater number that were dying and would continue to die under the regime. Usually people seem to say, no, as it is us pushing the fat man, despite the fact that five people arguably died through our inaction.

It is a theory like the question 'would you sacrafice your life to save the world from an invasion?' One day you will have to face this puzzle like saving your love ones by killing yourself and etc..... Well it is a dilemmna but I wouldn't do it. The thing is why would the five people would be on the track anyway? And so on......

Nope.
Video tape it and sell it to the news media and make a few hundred thousand.

If I was in this situatoin, I would let everyone die, except myself.

WAT?????????????????????????????????????...

I'd just sit back and watch the show.

too long to read

I am not Jesus, so I am not dying for nobody.

Let teh people die. If you push the fat man you will feel guilty for the rest of your life.

Hope you all are well with the lord. Turn and walk away.

I would probably push the man to save on the other people but I would have to go down with him. I like your thoughts about the iraq war and everything. I just would want to save the people rather than to save whatever I had left.

i would just luv to watch. but maybe my conscience would kick in.

I would look at the Fat Man and give that look of, "Aren't you going to do something?" And if gives me the, "Are you nuts?" look, I'll give him a boot in the backside and jump myself to try and do something.
This reminds me of the final episodes of Seinfeld. They are on a trip and instead of helping a fat man that was being robbed, they laughed and recorded it. They were sent to jail for not helping, why shouldn't the rest of us have a common moral fiber that says that we should try and do anything we can to help, or save, others.

No, I would not push the fat man.

However I would hunt down and execute the person who pushed the trolley and vacate the area so as not to be noticed. The person that pushed the trolley is evil and was killed as a result of their cowardly actions.

All your actions are dealt with one way or another or oneday. The USA and the willing are in Iraq to protect the innocent and destroy the useless waste of space called terrorists.

Any sane person would agree.

As a fat man, I reserve the right to decide for myself if I want to die to save anybody.

Unfortunately, you can spin out a lot of variations: one of the five will discover a cure for cancer - but how ban you know that? Or the fat man is President of the United States.

This scenario is not a parallel to Iraq. For a situation that IS parallel:

A driver has just runover 20 people and driven away. Can you justify killing everybody with that make of car to prevent the driver from killing anyone else?

There are no trolleys where I live. Why am I on a bridge? Is the fat man a jumper too? Why not just ask him? Maybe he was thinking the same thing? Do I know any of these people? Why are the five people so stupid as to keep standing on the track if I have so damn much time to think about all this?

Maybe it's more about natural selection than ethics...

You pose a challenging question, so I'll start by asking your opinion of the order issued on 9/11/01 to pilots of armed military aircraft: if another airliner were discovered to be behaving erratically, and the pilot refused to respond to radioed directions, the military planes were to shoot the airliner out of the sky.

This action, had the problem been recognized soon enough, might have prevented the planes from smacking into the WTC. A few score lives would've been sacrificed but a couple thousand saved. What would you do? Think FAST - you ain't got the time to dwell on the topic. How many are going to die - all the people on the airplanes plus all those people at "ground zero"? Or just those on the airplanes? YOU CANNOT SAVE EVERYONE! So - you're the one giving the military pilots their orders: whatta ya gonna do? Oh sh*t, somebody just told ya your baby granddaughter is a passenger on one of those airliners! NOW what'cha gonna do? 'N your dearly beloved spouse is on the plane with her! And so's Laura Bush! What'cha gonna do?

Y'know - despite all the glorious myths about dragons and knights in shining armor - sometimes the DRAGON wins!

This is the second question I have seen like this. I belive (because this is a question of morals) that it would be acceptable to push the fat man to save the 5 other people. I dont know If I could personally end the life of another person, even if it would save several others.
Sacrifice the few to save the many.
It is probably acceptable in the trolly car case because it is your life you are throwing away to save several. you made the choice.
In the fatman situation, you are still saving many, but you are making it so the man can not choose how he will spend his life.

If the fat man was George W Bush the I'd push him.