Hi all,

 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/i5U2zSltpyk

That youtube video above describes the question I'm about to ask:

Pretend you're in a hot air balloon with 5 other people. You're floating over the ocean and then someone realizes that there are 1,000 sharks swimming below you. All of a sudden, a bird flies into your craft and pokes a hole in the side. You begin falling rapidly, and your only chance of making it to shore is to lose as much weight as possible so that you can hopefully drift closer to the beach.

You toss everything (blankets, radios, etc) overboard, but that still isn't enough weight. You then realize that someone MUST be thrown overboard...otherwise EVERYONE will die.

How do you make the decision as to who gets thrown off? Do you base it on things like:
-Age
-Weight
-Number of children
-Race

-Etc

???


If you watch the video you'll gain a few other insights as well. I'm interested to see what you guys have to say.

Tags: ethics, killing, morals, philosophy

Views: 27

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I'm shocked to see that race has been even thought of as an option in this day and age,I find that sickening.

I blame the obsession Americans have with status. Because poor whites have been told that they're better than blacks no matter how rich blacks get, it's the one thing they scrabble to hold onto, and continue to believe in no matter what science comes up to contradict it.

I have dated a black guy and he was afraid to meet my parents due to their outright racism. They never found out that I was dating him--I'm not even PLANNING on having kids, ever, and that's the excuse they used as for why I couldn't date a black guy.

Race issues are a big deal here, especially in the south, where everyone is poor.

I kick the shark's asses because one of the passengers is Chuck Norris!

 

That's about as sensible as this scenario actually happening.

I'd go random.  Pick straws or something (if you didn't already throw them overboard!).

Pray?

 

:P

Being that this is a question of "who's life is more valuable?" I would have to say that in order to even answer a question such as this one would need to have a good enough relationship with each person to know who to sacrifice.  However, the only real selfless answer to this question is:

 

The person who realizes that one must be sacrificed for the many, can only remain selfless by offering himself first.

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