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Debate Score:9
Arguments:10
Total Votes:9
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 Train Moral Dilemma (8)

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Train Moral Dilemma

How many people would have to be strapped onto a train track with a train coming for you to justify pushing your spouse in front of the train to save the rest of the people? 2? 5? Think as if you were actually in that situation, it's easy to say you're morally enlightened enough to push your spouse in front of a train to save 2 people, but would you actually do it?

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2 points

I'm not married, but if I was (assuming it was a happy marriage, and those people didn't include my kids or something (which I don't have either), etc) than I'd never push her in front of the train.

You're going to need a big train to squash 7.6 billion people, at which point I don't think my wife would stop it.

Fuck Utilitarianism, there's a reason why doctors aren't allowed to operate on their lovers and a reason why police can't investigate crimes involving their lovers.

Loyalty is not something to be ashamed of, it's what makes us human.

I'd skin people alive to save my lover.

Don't confuse my loyalty for immorality.

If you're going to ask 'would you kill these friends to save these friends' then that is down to the very specific situation and it will make me cry to even think of that situation.

I wouldn't just straight up kill someone I knew to save someone close to me, I'd hesitate. The issue is how much the 'need' is a need.

If there is no other way, you have to make a decision. It isn't pretty, it isn't nice and it isn't what you want but in this world being nice only works with people who respond well to niceness... Sometimes you have to be that ruthless monster to remain happy in a world where ruthless monsters are a dime a dozen.

GoodListener(603) Clarified
1 point

If I went to prison for pulling the lever, I would be proud and tell the others in the prison of my crime when asked.

I'm not fucking saying I want to go, but I'm saying I wouldn't flinch once I decided to pull it.

1 point

Did someone just watch that 'vsauce' video????????????????????????????????????????

1 point

Pushing one in front of a train to save two is not morally enlightened, it is merely consistent utilitarianism, which is not a sufficient moral code for most situations.

I wouldn’t push my wife in front of the train to save people strapped to it, however many. I would save who I could and then kill the man who strapped them there. The moral issue is his.

1 point

Sorry, but there is no amount of people who could inspire me to push my wife in front instead. My wife and kids are the most important people to me in the world. And were I to lose her by doing that and then had to go home to face my kids and tell them what happened and why -- I would surely die.

Amarel(5669) Clarified
1 point

The OP seems to think that pushing your spouse in front of a train to save 2 people is morally enlightened. It's nice to see that most people here understand that strict utilitarianism is not the same as moral enlightenment.

1 point

Pushing people in front of a moving train doesn't stop the train. Who thought this up?

That's not at all what the illustration shows, incidentally.