Posted: Aug 22, 2017 1:00 pm
zoon wrote:scott1328 wrote:I wouldn't throw the switch nor would I push the fat guy off the bridge.
If someone else had thrown the switch or pushed the fat guy, would you consider that person should be sentenced as for murder (in a jurisdiction without the death penalty)? Even without the (somewhat illogical) distinction between throwing switches and pushing people, it's of interest that most people around the world seem to share the moral intuition that killing one person intentionally in order to save five doesn't necessarily count as murder, but you may not share that intuition.
Since I did not create the situation (as described in the thought experiment) and am not the operator of the trolley, I am mere witness to the events. If I insert myself into the situation, I take on the consequences of any actions I take. I become directly responsible for a death by throwing the switch. Just as I become responsible for a death by pushing the fat man off the bridge.
If I were on a jury, I suspect I would not convict the person who did throw the switch (thus killing 1 to save 5). But, I would convict the person who pushed the person from the bridge (thus killing 1 to save 5).
But I dispute that the situations as described are equivalent. In the first situation all persons are in peril. In the second situation only the five on the track are in peril.