I don't understand what's murky about your hypothetical as proposed. Go help the depressed friend. Even if you successfully pitched the startup to the investor

I don't understand what's murky about your hypothetical as proposed. Go help the depressed friend. Even if you successfully pitched the startup to the investor the utility gained ultimately is indeterminate vs. the very immediate and real utility gained from a successful suicide (presumably permanent) prevented. Your example though is good to illustrate the fallacy of "end justifies the means" type thinking. When you suppose the outcome (talking to the investor leads to the startup being created which then presumably prevents suicides) for one scenario but not for the other the entire thing is meaningless. With these types of scenarios you can see the error by applying one scenario and overlaying it on the other: 1. Talk a friend out of a suicide who does (2) 2. Engage in a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity for suicide prevention. Clearly 1 includes 2, so 2 is the answer. You might say that's not the scenario you posed, which is true, but I'd counter and say that's the issue with contrived examples to begin with.