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[Jay w]

you have a healthy person, potentially they could save the lives of 5 people who required various organ transplants.

Heart
Kidney x2
Liver
Lungs

so heres the dilemma.......

do you sacrifice one person to save 5

please note this is just a hypothetical....

[amigov6]

Is it your choice or theres?

[Vamps]

I would get into trouble if I suggested that there are those in the population that perhaps should be scrificed for the beneift of the majority

[VXL V6]

Keep the one person.... carbon footprint and all that to consider  

[VXL V6]

I would get into trouble if I suggested that there are those in the population that perhaps should be scrificed for the beneift of the majority

Hadn't thought along those lines.... guess that would be two of us in trouble then.......

[vauxfan2k]

is this "donor" a tax dodging benifit leeching illegal immigrant?

[Jay w]

no this is nothing to do with tax or carbon foot printing, nor are we talking about 'culling' part of the population...

its more the ethic of killing someone to benefit 5 lives

this person is mr/mrs/miss/ms average who lives a normal life

[amigov6]

Even hypothetically it's a hard question to answer. The healthy person would have to be depressed to make the sacrifice. It's his/her decision (or incision!) not yours or mine so your question is questionable!!!

    Only the doner can answer.

[amigov6]

What if you were as healthy as the healthy person...would you do it? :-?

[HerefordElite]

no

and if i die you can't have mine either - my choice thanks  

[Vamps]

no this is nothing to do with tax or carbon foot printing, nor are we talking about 'culling' part of the population...

its more the ethic of killing someone to benefit 5 lives

this person is mr/mrs/miss/ms average who lives a normal life

Why? why not cull???

[vauxfan2k]

Dont fancy the thought of "inferior" non genuine parts in my body , thanks all the same  

[Vamps]

I will have any scroats, non smoking lungs thanks....

[amigov6]

He who asks the question should be equally as open to the knife as the healthy party...as in "what would you do?" As the healthy party i'd be saying "sacrifice yourself then, who gave you the right to choose?!!!

[Lizzie_Zoom]

My politics are biased to achieving "the greatest good" in line with Bentham's utilitarianism, so you sacrifice one life to save five!

However, I would hate to have to make that decision if it mean't the death of that one person, when you have to consider the morality involved, along with the rights of liberty, freedom and justice for the individual under God given laws as Locke envisaged. 8-) 8-)

I am sure the circumstances of the situation, such as war, must greatly infuence any individuals ability to make such judgement.  

However a decision of this type always makes me think of the infamous hot air ballon challenge:

A hot air ballon needs to lighten its load to avoid crashing into a mountain range below.  There are five people, of the same physical weight, in the ballon and it is calculated that the weight of one, if removed from the ballon, would save the balloon from unavoidable disaster.   The people have therefore to decide who should be removed from the basket by working out each others "worth" in society and deciding who can be sacrificed.

Apparently this challenge has been used in Special Forces Training and made as real as possible by the instructors, which is a most unpleasant thought!