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To: neverdem
[In the second version of the problem, you are standing on a bridge over a trolley track beside a fat person. Again you notice that the runaway trolley is headed toward five unaware people. Do you push the fat person onto the track to stop the trolley?]



Not enough information to make a decision.

Is the fat person your boyfriend or girlfriend? Santa Claus? Bryant Gimbel? Michael Moore?

What if I, myself, weigh 400 pounds? Should I jump?

And why isn't just shouting out "HEY, LOOK OUT FOR THAT TRAIN YOU IDIOTS!" an option? Am I unable to speak for some reason?

And what happens if you push the fat person onto the tracks, derailing the train, and it causes the train to smash onto the platform killing 100 people who were actually smart enough to look out for their own survival in place of the 5 fools who aren't that smart? Doesn't that make you personally responsible for significantly weakening the human gene pool?

I think these are all important questions which have to be answered before a moral decision can be made.

<?:^)
11 posted on 01/27/2006 12:13:14 PM PST by spinestein (All journalists today are paid advocates for someone's agenda.)
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To: spinestein

Hopefully the train would be far away and moving slowly, or you'd probably on be halfway through working out the answers to the question when the train made the decision for you.


19 posted on 01/27/2006 1:52:17 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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