• Registered: 2002-03-19
  • Posts: 9,988

Topic: Lifeboat

Random hypothetical question because I'm bored

So, you in a situation where, say, among a small group of people it is obvious that either one person must be chosen to be sacrificed or else everybody will die.  Doesn't matter what the situation is, its a hypothetical question.  It could be that after a planecrash in shark infested waters in a small lifeboat you discover that there is a hole in the boat, but when there is less weight in the boat (IE if somebody were to be thrown to the sharks) that the boat would stay inflated long enough to hit land and the rest of the group would survive.  Or you could be on a space station as one of 10 people where there is some kind of accident and there is only enough air to support 9 people until rescue arrives. 

The question is, on what basis do you choose who must die, or there is the option for the entire group to die.  Do you choose the weakest, the dumbest, the oldest, draw straws (assuming some are available), or what.

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  • Registered: 2002-04-18
  • Posts: 8,116

Re: Lifeboat

I hope that wasn't an MD worthy response.  If it was, I'm scared for you.  At least if what is implied is the case.

The situation I've heard described had a handicapped person, a world-reknowned brain surgeon, a mentally retarded individual, An elderly person, etc.  Most respected and least respected in society. 

You have to give us some concretes or else, how can we say?  ...Perhaps it's me and nine of my mentally retarded best friends and one unknown brain surgeon.  We could throw out the brain surgeon because we don't know him and we personally lose less.

Throw out the person that annoys everyone, I say, and there's always one of THOSE guys.

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  • Registered: 2007-07-07
  • Posts: 509

Re: Lifeboat

I would lure people into remote locations of the space station to conspire against the other people, and kill them all off one by one. You can never be certain killing only one guarantees survival, may as well kill them all. Also, tether them outside of the ship so they stay chilled in case you need to eat them.

  • Registered: 2004-02-07
  • Posts: 2,769

Re: Lifeboat

There is no good answer to your question, because of the way that our society refuses (in principle) to prioritize the life of one person over another. Regardless of what you do, you will be behaving in a morally questionable way, because the situation has been engineered to guarantee that.

The only thing you can ethically do is volunteer yourself, or hope that someone else volunteers themselves. If no one volunteers than you all die. If someone volunteers than everyone except him lives and he becomes a hero.

Well knows he who uses to consider, that our faith and knowledge thrives by exercise, as well as our limbs and complexion. Truth is compared in Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition. A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.
  • Registered: 2003-02-25
  • Posts: 1,496

Re: Lifeboat

Well...originally I thought the elderly person because they've had the greatest amount of time alive. But then I thought about whether or not the retard was really "alive"...quality of life etc. So those are all tough moral judgment calls. I guess I'd settle for a game of Russian roulette. But set the specialist or the most intelligent aside because they have skills necessary for the survival of the whole group. It wouldn't make sense to kill the only aeronautical engineer in the space station. Or the captain of a boat lost at sea. So yeah. I'd set aside all the specialists and smarties. And get the average folks in a group with a revolver and spin the shit. Leave it up to chance. Of course you may have some kind of mutiny on your hands at this point when one person says "Well, why is the engineer not in the circle of death?" And then you grab the revolver and shoot the person, resolving the issue. It's shitty no matter how you look at it. I liked Killgore's thoughts on it...Oh and if there is a religious fanatic in the group you could always kill them because they'd go to God or Allah. big_smile

6 Reply by Krall

  • Registered: 2002-12-22
  • Posts: 1,624

Re: Lifeboat

I would consider how many friends each person aboard has, and also who has kids.  I think it's worth considering what long term impact the death of the person in question will have.  Also, I would tend to think that the person most willing to sacrifice himself may not be the most deserving to die, so I wouldn't necessarily choose him if I had my way.

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  • Registered: 2004-02-07
  • Posts: 2,769

Re: Lifeboat

If you're trying to decide who 'deserves' or 'doesn't deserve' to die then you're already barking up the wrong tree. The fact of the matter is that there is no way for you to know each member of the group so well that you or anyone else can make that call. If you try to go by merit, you could end up exempting someone with a title but no real claim to it, or condemn someone without a title who could be the next de vinci.

The person 'most willing' to sacrifice himself, whatever that means exactly and if there is such a person, may deserve to be commended for trying to put others' lives in front of his own - or maybe he's just suicidal. In either case, how on earth could it make sense to execute someone who is less willing to die, based on the assumption of the former? The person most willing to sacrifice himself would not be happy, because you've gone against his wishes despite saving his life. When others see that the person you spared is upset that you spared him, they will blame you for making a bad decision. Or maybe he won't be upset with you because he secretly didn't want to die, in which case you made a decision based on bad information.

Last edited by Killgore9998 (2008-09-07 02:16)

Well knows he who uses to consider, that our faith and knowledge thrives by exercise, as well as our limbs and complexion. Truth is compared in Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition. A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.

8 Reply by Leymo

  • Registered: 2002-03-24
  • Posts: 959

Re: Lifeboat

I think that it would be best to do a vote.

Not because this would guarantee that the best decision would be made - there is no best decision if the measuring scale is unknown.
But it would probably be the solution in which all the persons on the boat are most likely to accept the result, while not risking that the engineer would draw the shortest straw.

Last edited by Leymo (2008-09-07 09:23)

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