Polls
Who is the pretty boy of affiliate networks?
- Jason Baker
CommissionJunction
(26%, 78 Votes) - Lee Griffin
TradeDoubler
(16%, 47 Votes) - James Little
AffiliateFuture
(14%, 41 Votes) - Darren Newmark
LinkShare
(12%, 35 Votes) - Doug:)
Sexy beast
(11%, 33 Votes) - Adam Ross
AffiliateWindow
(11%, 32 Votes) - Mark Walters
AfilliateWindow
(11%, 32 Votes) - Chris Mockford
Buy.at
(9%, 26 Votes) - Tyson Pearcey
Buy.at
(5%, 14 Votes) - Warwick Lambert
Buy.at
(4%, 11 Votes) - Clarke Duncan
PaidOnResults
(3%, 10 Votes) - Giles Parnell
AffiliateFuture
(-22%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 297
Loading ...- Jason Baker
Who to kill
Suppose Bill is a healthy man without family or loved ones. Would it be ok painlessly to kill him if his organs would save five people, one of whom needs a heart, another a kidney, and so on? If not, why not?
Consider another case: you and six others are kidnapped, and the kidnapper somehow persuades you that if you shoot dead one of the other hostages, he will set the remaining five free, whereas if you do not, he will shoot all six. (Either way, he’ll release you.)
If in this case you should kill one to save five, why not in the previous, organs case? If in this case too you have qualms, consider yet another: you’re in the cab of a runaway tram and see five people tied to the track ahead. You have the option of sending the tram on to the track forking off to the left, on which only one person is tied. Surely you should send the tram left, killing one to save five.
But then why not kill Bill?
Thanks to the BBC
Popularity: 1% [?]
I hate these questions cause I feel compelled to answer…
In all the above cases, it’s either not your decision, or you have another option which is not offered:
*Whether Bill lives or dies donating his organs is his decision
*The decision to kill one or all is a group decision and someone will volunteer, that’s guaranteed
*You can pull the emergency brake
To deal with hero’s point, the question about the runaway train is usually stated in the form that you are by the lever of a set of points and the tram (or train) is out of control. Which not only deals with the “emergency brake” issue but also the fact that drivers of trams (or trains) cannot normally control the points.
The companion question is usually that there’s a big fat guy on a railway bridge. Runaway train, people on track, if you push the guy off the bridge he’ll cause the train to stop. Highly implausible, and I prefer a guy in a SUV that you can nudge off the bridge with your car. One person against five, same as before. Most people feel that deliberately killing one guy in this situation is wrong. I don’t, I’d push the bastard.
I agree with hero about Bill. It’s not an emergency. You can ask Bill if he’d like to volunteer. And it’s possible that Bill is the guy who is about to bring about nukular disarmament AND find a cure for AIDS, whereas the five people needing transplants are all worthless tossers. In the tram/train scenario you don’t have the time to investigate if that one life is worth more than the other five put fogether. For example, Bush, Cheney, Libby, Mukasey and Gonzalez versus some homeless meths drinker is a no brainer – you save the meths drinker.