That’s a very real scenario. It is happening all around us, every day. It’s different than the original example or even my later example.
And I, unlike Mr, Prager, am not being paid to discuss this topic. My answers are not deeply researched, as he would with his.
In your example any person could provide the meds to save a life. In Prager’s example ONLY YOU have a chance to rescue the stranger.
In any case my major objection to such hypothetical questions is that they are hypothetical. People make different decisions in real life.
It is a valid objection to saving the strangers life that one is more sure one can rescue the dog safely, yet the attempt of a rescue of a stranger in the water is fraught with far more unknown dangers. The stranger is heavier, stronger than your typical dog.
But in such cases you can often rescue the stranger by not endangering yourself — you can use a branch, a swimming pool cleaning pole, a rope, a blanket rolled up to extend to the stranger.
In my example I ask this ... do you run to the garage for the cell phone, or run to see if there is something with which you can save the stranger?
In any case — in all these cases — to ignore the clear plight of a fellow human in distress who has no one else to provide help or rescue in order that one may not be bothered, is heartless and inhumane.
The questions of what to do in such emergency situations are a matter not of that immediate instance, but rather of one’s whole life. The old school Scout Motto “Be Prepared”!
A person who trains and prepares him or herself to deal with water emergencies or other types of emergencies can be expected to find a way to rescue both human and dog.
I agree with you, I just don’t know that my scenario is so very differnt from the original question. I think it boils down to the fact that you have resources that you can use to save your dog or save a person. We’re fairly assured that there are people in the world whose lives can be saved with the same amount of money. And just because most of the time they aren’t presented just within reach I don’t know that that makes it different. I guess the best we can do is hope that we can live with the decisions we make. But yes, I hate hypotheticals and this is why. :)