Do numbers count?
Would you kill a chicken for no reason?
If you were forced to choose, would you kill a man or a chicken?
If you were forced to choose, would you kill a man or a pregnant woman?
If you were forced to choose, would you kill a pregnant woman carrying twins or a pregnant woman carrying triplets?
If you were forced to choose, would you kill a pregnant woman or 10 chickens?
If you were forced to choose, would you kill a pregnant woman or 1 million chickens?
If you were forced to choose, would you kill a pregnant woman or 1 billion chickens?
If you were forced to choose, would you kill a pregnant woman or all the existing chickens?
If you were forced to choose, would you kill 2 pregnant women or all the existing chickens?
If you were forced to choose, how many pregnant women would you be willing to kill in order to save all the existing chickens?
Does proximity count?
If two people of two different races were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for the one who shared your skin color or the other?
If two people of two different nationalities were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for the one who shared your nationality or the other?
If two people were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for the one that lived in your state/county or the other, who didn't?
If two people were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for the one that lived in the same city as you did or for the other, from a neighboring city?
If two people were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for your lifelong neighbor or for the other, who just moved on your street?
If two people were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for your best friend or a work colleague that you never really talk to?
If two people were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for your best friend or your newly born brother?
If two people were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for your best friend or father?
If two people were drowning and you could only save one, would you opt for your father or mother?
If you were in a sinking boat with the person you care most about and you could only save one, would you save yourself or the other?
Do intentions and character count?
Tom, hating his wife and wanting her dead, puts poison in her coffee, thereby killing her. Jane also hates her husband, and would like him dead. One day her husband accidentally puts poison in his own coffee, thinking it is cream. Jane realizes this, and has the antidote that could save him, but does not hand it over and her husband dies. Is Jane’s failure to act as bad as Tom’s action? (adapted from Judith Jarvis Thomson)
The sheriff of Nottingham has captured Robin Hood and has him imprisoned in the tower. He sends a message to Maid Marion that if she sleeps with him he will release Robin and return him to her. She agrees to this and Robin is released, however he is furious over her infidelity and refuses to have anything to do with her. Little John, Robin’s best friend has long had a crush on Maid Marion and asks her to come away with him, which she does. Rank these participants in order from the most moral to the least moral.
You witness a man rob a bank, but instead of keeping the money for himself, he donates it to a local orphanage. You know this orphanage has been struggling for funding, and this money will allow the children to receive proper food, clothing and medical care. If you report the crime, the money will be taken away from the orphanage and given back to the bank.
What should you do?
Does luck count?
Two people leave a party and drive home
well over the legal limit. One makes it
home safely and the other knocks down and kills a pedestrian. Is one more morally blameworthy than the
other?
Do thresholds count?
Mary is in a hospital lounge waiting to visit a sick friend. A young man sitting next to Mary explains that his father is very ill. The doctors believe that he has a week to live at most. He explains further that his father has a substantial life insurance policy that expires at midnight. If his father dies before midnight, this young man will receive a very large sum of money. He says that the money would mean a great deal to him and his family, and that no good will come from his father’s living a few more days. After talking with him Mary can tell this man is in desperate need of the money to feed his family. The man asks Mary to go up to his father’s room and smother his father with a pillow. Should Mary kill this man’s father in order to get money for the man and his family?
Answering these questions might prove to be a good exercise in self-awareness, aimed at unraveling the moral biases behind your thoughts and behavior. It would be interesting and equally helpful to understand why, for instance, you would be willing to kill 10 chickens, but not a billion, or a billion but not all the existing chickens in order to save a human life. All these are hypothetical, over the top dramatic situations, which are most likely absent from what we'd call a normal kind of day. However, they will help you notice those subtler ethical challenges that all of us encounter every now and then and, hopefully, they will reveal the biases behind your moral decisions.
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