3 ms·

This is the Trolly Car Problem. Is it ethical to say I'm making a choice to kill some to save more?

• quantified 5y ago
  Sort of, indeed. I’d say this is a fuzzy evil (psycho kitten?) trolley car problem where you don’t know anything precise or accurate about either side. And, well, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” is a good starting point until you can make actual judgement calls about the individuals. If one of the infants was the Antichrist, good call. If one of them was the only one smart enough to conceive the equations that unlock virtually free energy or the social engineering required to avert a national disaster, oops.
• josephcsible 5y ago
  Imagine there's two different trolleys. The first one will kill 50 people if you don't pull the lever, or 10 people if you do. The second one will kill 1 person if you don't pull the lever, or 5 people if you do. There's valid debate both ways as to whether you should pull the first lever, but you obviously definitely should not pull the second lever. But in the case of COVID restrictions, society has decided that for reasons I don't understand, pulling just one lever is out of the question, and they can't pull either unless they pull both. (In case the analogy isn't clear, the first lever is COVID restrictions on high-risk people and anyone who lives with or takes care of them, and the second lever is COVID restrictions on everyone else.)