What? You mean like if we were put inside the Thunderdome or something? All I have to say is:
Two men enter!! One man leaves!!
Two men enter!! One man leaves!!
In other words, I wouldn’t have to think about it.
Bullshit. If someone sat you in an electric chair with a timer and a button and said “you have until this timer runs out to press this button, thus killing someone in a similar chair”, you wouldn’t press it? I find that hard to believe.
This entire thread reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode (or maybe Outer Limits or something) where a guy is offered an incredible amount of money (or some other reward) if he presses a button. The only catch is that some random person who he never met will instantly die.
After much agonizing, he finally presses the button only to learn that someone HE never met now has it and if it gets pressed, HE will die. Oh, the irony!
And what will you do? How exactly are you better prepared to deal with that situation? Do you have a kung-fu action grip that incapacitates your enemies? JC stands for Joe Cool not Jackie Chan. Would you just call the police?
So you value your life so little that you would automatically sacrifice it for a complete stranger. Don’t you care about your loved ones? Would you not consider they effect your death will have on them? JC stands for Joe Cool not Jesus Christ.
After a bit of thinking on this, I don’t think this really is a question that could show the value of human life. Wether they value the two lives involved as almost worthless, or priceless, both lives would be the same. It’s more a question of wether people would consider their own lives more valuable than a random person in the world, but doesn’t say anything about the value of a human life in general.
And it also doesn’t compare to all the examples of people risking their lives for someone else. Risk implies chance, not certainty. It’s a lot different to risk one’s life than to sacrifice it willingly. While I was very quick to answer that I wouldn’t sacrafice myself to save a random person, it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t risk myself to save someone. In fact, I’ve done that (Well, more than just one someone, there were quite a lot… Though I did get help). In the end, though, I’d probably weight it pretty evenly. If I were more likely to get killed than save someone by a certain course of action, I probably wouldn’t do that. I -would- try to find another way, however, I wouldn’t just shrug, give up, and walk away.
Setting myself up for accusations of callousness and misanthropy here, but I want to chime in.
There are exactly 14 people on the planet I would sacrifice my life for. Because of our relationships, I value their continued longevity more important than my own.
I wouldn’t sacrifice my life for anyone else because I do not believe life has any inherent value. What value it has is earned, subjectively, between individuals.
let’s boil down the OP here a little bit, maybe put it in terms that illustrate the point a little better.
Say that you were told that the random person as defined in the OP needed a new heart to live and yours was the only match. Would you lie down on the operating table and give yours up so that another might live?
For some random person I’d never meet, even if I was told he had 14 starving children? I really don’t think so. What makes his life more valuable than mine? What about the loss my family would feel? The only thing equal to a human life is a human life. I don’t feel a need to give it up easily.
For my son? Assuming there was a 100% chance that he’d have the opportunity to recover and live a full and productive life? Yes, without hesitation.
For any other relative or a friend or acquaintance? It really depends there. Maybe for some, doubtful for others.
For my (ex)wife? I might I felt that way once, but she ripped it out without giving me a choice several years ago.
Oddly, for many people, one life is worth several others to be named later.
For example, 12 years ago the San Francisco Bay Bridge broke in an earthquake and 1 person died there. The bridge is now being rebuilt, primarily because of the one life.
But since a dozen people die during the constuction of any bridge that size, the tradeoff seems absurd.
onesbureaucratictendency, where are you getting your information? One section of the upper level of the Bay Bridge collapsed. The person that drove into the hole was not driving at a reduced speed nor was she taking any particular precautions. (I should say: from having seen the video of the accident it does not appear that, considering the circumstances, she was taking any safety precautions whatsoever.)
The bridge itself didn’t “break” and the section was repaired immediately! That bridge is not some rickety wooden structure over a small river, it is an important traffic conduit for a densely populated area and would not be left unrepaired for more that twelve years.
Retro-fitting is not the same thing as rebuilt, nor are the deaths of a dozen people required. I don’t now how construction is done in your area, but in California we don’t entombed a human at the base of bridges to ensure good luck. If anyone has died during this retro-fitting, then I missed the newscast. (Which is entirely possibe, since I don’t watch much TV.)
here’s an interesting twist on this question: Would it be worth one human life to prevent a species of animal (a cute fluffy mammal) from going extinct? Obviously it would be hard if not impossible to come up with a scenario where this would indeed be the case, but excluding PETA members, would it be worth hitting the “kill random human button” to save the last 2 (male and female) of a cute fluffy mammal species?
BTW this reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode i once saw… this guy delivered a button (a box with a button on it) to these people’s house, and told them that he’ll pay them $1000 to push the button - but when they push the button, a random person somewhere on the earth will die… and it won’t be anyone they know. If i remember right, they argued over whether or not to push the button… and eventually the wife did it… and the guy came back and gave them the $1000 dollars and thanked them.
I’m callous. But, I tend to value strangers more than most people I know. You see, I’ve already confirmed what worthless pieces of dung most of the people I know are. (not all of them, I’ve met some wonderful people through this forum for instance) OTOH, I’m willing to make a quick judgement of someone based on external appearance. I generally keep an open mind about someone regardless of externals, but if all I got is 2 seconds, then that’s all the chance they have to impress me. I’d never sacrifice my life for any animal regardless of the endangeredness of the species. Also, it would be a big difference if I had even a small chance of surviving. I would take a HUGE risk to save even a worthless example of humanity from certain death.
The thing is, I’m pretty cocky. I consider myself a pretty valuable human myself, well above the average. Not to mention, I’m probably going to flinch a bit from throwing myself to the lions, so to speak, regardless of whether I want to intellectually. While my brain is trying to convince my body to go ahead and do it, I might miss the opportunity.
Also, here’s something that may be odd about me, I’d just as likely to sacrifice myself for an adult than a child. I wouldn’t sacrifice myself for a geriatric, but many of the people I would definitely sacrifice myself for are in their 40’s. These people have made themselves into something extremely valuable to the world. Children with huge potential frequently turn into adults who are a waste of air because of their upbringing or whatever. This whole question seems very related to the abortion question to me. There are plenty of abortion threads so please don’t start debating that here.
