# 1 in a million chance of killing someone **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 20, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788 "2007-03-20T22:58:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/da6949/32.png) [@Andrew\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andrew_Bird)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/1 "2007-03-20T22:58:47Z")
Is it wrong to do something if it has a 1 in a million chance of killing an innocent person? What if you do the act 3 million times? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/2 "2007-03-20T23:09:17Z")
Not enough info. Doctors operate on patients and treat patients in ways where the chance of death is much greater than 1 in a million. I have driven in conditions (heavy snow and sleet for example) where the chance of getting in an accident and killing someone is probably greater than one in a million. The list goes on and on. If we ordered our lives against the long odds of killing ourselves and others in given acts, we probably wouldn’t get much done. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/3 "2007-03-20T23:27:33Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Not enough info. Doctors operate on patients and treat patients in ways where the chance of death is much greater than 1 in a million. I have driven in conditions (heavy snow and sleet for example) where the chance of getting in an accident and killing someone is probably greater than one in a million. The list goes on and on. If we ordered our lives against the long odds of killing ourselves and others in given acts, we probably wouldn’t get much done. [/QUOTE] You simply run risk vs reward, and make the decision. 1 in a million to kill, but higher chance of saving? You do it. This is the thought premise behind innoculations, for example. They save more than they kill once you run the numbers. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/4 "2007-03-20T23:36:50Z")
[QUOTE=Andrew Bird] Is it wrong to do something if it has a 1 in a million chance of killing an innocent person? What if you do the act 3 million times? [/QUOTE] I honestly don’t think you’re going to kill anybody masturbating, so you should give your conscience some breathing room. ---
**Author:** ![enigm4tic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@enigm4tic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigm4tic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/5 "2007-03-21T01:20:03Z")
[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy] I honestly don’t think you’re going to kill anybody masturbating, so you should give your conscience some breathing room. [/QUOTE] think of the kittens though! ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/6 "2007-03-21T07:11:54Z")
Assume that the statistic often cited in driver’s education is correct: on average, you will be in a car accident every four years. If you drive twice a day, that means you have about a 1 in 3000 chance of being in an accident any given day. If the answer to the OP is “yes” and at least 1 in 300 accidents is fatal, then operating a motor vehicle would be “unethical”. Should we cower at home? Take turns so that only one of us is on the road at a time? There are unreasonable risks, but you can take a one-in-a-million risk regularly all your life and never see the downside. Personally I wouldn’t mess with 1 in 5,000 odds of death (if I knew the odds). That said, I’ve probably done stupid stuff that has worse odds. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/7 "2007-03-21T08:58:07Z")
Given how flimsy people are, and chaos theory, I expect that just about everything has _at least_ one chance in a million of killing someone. The same goes for _not_ doing things; inaction can also kill. I’m reminded of a sci-fi short story of an AI that was programmed with Asimov’s Three Laws, including the one about not harming humans. They couldn’t get it to work; it turned out it always went catatonic the moment it was activated, since _anything_ it did had a chance of harming someone. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/8 "2007-03-21T13:09:38Z")
[QUOTE=Andrew Bird] Is it wrong to do something if it has a 1 in a million chance of killing an innocent person? What if you do the act 3 million times? [/QUOTE] We need context. Throwing a tennis ball off a highway overpass might only have a one in a million chance of causing a fatal accident, but it’s still a stupid thing to do. I might have a one in a million chance of getting blown up by by gas stove, but I’m still going to cook. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/9 "2007-03-21T15:04:00Z")
As a society, we allow certain things to happen, even though there is a chance for death. We allow the construction of buildings, bridges, tunnels and other structures, even though there is a reasonable chance that people will be killed during the construction of those structures. We allow people to drive even though thousands of people die every year in car accidents. We allow professional boxing, even though people have been known to die in the ring. The fact that something can cause a death does not, in itself, make something wrong or immoral. On the other hand, when something significantly increases the chance of death over the normal chances, then we tend to view it as wrong. Driving is not wrong, even though there is a chance of killing someone. Driving while drunk, OTOH, is wrong, because now you’ve significantly increased the chance of death. Dropping bowling balls off of highway overpasses is wrong because you’re significantly increasing the possibility of death while driving. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/10 "2007-03-21T19:43:13Z")
I should also mention that every has a 100% of dying at some point. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/11 "2007-03-21T20:17:14Z")
I’m curious. I did the math, and it looks like you picked 3 million acts because that was the 95% confidence level, that is the number of repetitions of an act with a one in a million chance of killing someone where you had only a 5.0% chance of avoiding killing someone. Was that deliberate or a coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-a-million-chance-of-killing-someone/396788/12 "2007-03-22T21:11:25Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] I should also mention that every has a 100% of dying at some point. [/QUOTE] Alas, poor Every. I knew him, Horatio. 🙂