A question about killing

[Adam]

I'm sure such questions have been asked here before, but...

You are told an automated machine gun will kill a room full of children. You can see the room, and see the gun. You are told that the only way to prevent it is to use the pistol in your hand to shoot the person seated in front of you. You have no idea if that person is good, bad, annoying, or whatever.

Do you kill the person in the chair?
Or do you risk the kids dying?

Why?

 

[spookz]

shoot the person who is telling you all this
the freak is setting you up
in fact, go after his whole family

 

[*stRgrL*]

Easy, shoot the guy

 

[CounslerCoffee]

I would shoot the guy infront of me without even thinking.

Would I regret it? No. Its the greatest good to be able to kill a one person and save 20. Its cruel but its cold hard numbers, its all about numbers.

 

[Thor]

Shot the guy, comfort the kids, explain what happened to the police and the press (for free). Go home and go to bed with that proud feeling that you've done some good in this screwed up world

 

[Avatar]

if that human in front of me is a very beautiful gal, then I think kids could wait

 

[Thor]

I'm sorry, but the kids would have to come first. I hate seeing little kids get hurt, I hate seeing anyone get hurt. But its a case of choosing the lesser of two evils I'm afraid

 

[CounslerCoffee]

Would I be evil if I shot the guy in front of me? Would other people understand that had I not killed that guy all the kids would of died? Would I stand trial for it?

These are just a few of many stupid questions that I have.

 

[Avatar]

Originally posted by Thor
I'm sorry, but the kids would have to come first. I hate seeing little kids get hurt, I hate seeing anyone get hurt. But its a case of choosing the lesser of two evils I'm afraid

I duno really- imo- killing is not an option if the gal infront of you has done nothing. Maybe in the future she would be the only scientist capable of stopping an alien virus from killing all of mankind.
vice versa also of course

 

[Thor]

If I had the choice between shooting a hot babe and saving all the kids or letting her live then kill all the kids. I'd rather shoot her. Who cares how hot she is (rhetorical), the kids don't deserve that

 

[static76]

Originally posted by Adam
I'm sure such questions have been asked here before, but...

You are told an automated machine gun will kill a room full of children. You can see the room, and see the gun. You are told that the only way to prevent it is to use the pistol in your hand to shoot the person seated in front of you. You have no idea if that person is good, bad, annoying, or whatever.
Why?

I would shoot the person seated in front of me, but in the foot. That way everyone lives.

 

[Avatar]

Originally posted by Thor
If I had the choice between shooting a hot babe and saving all the kids or letting her live then kill all the kids. I'd rather shoot her. Who cares how hot she is (rhetorical), the kids don't deserve that

technically you wouldn't kill the kids

anyway - this set of circumstances has uber small possibilities of happening

 

[postoak]

I've asked this (a similar) question to many people (just not on the internet). I usually set it up as 10,000,000,000 innocent babies and I also add the proviso that if you do nothing within a certain time frame that everyone is killed.

I have usually gotten responses similar to Avatar's. To me this seems wrong-headed, but most people apparently think that way. What's amazing to me is that some of these people supported the Nato-Serbia war, which means they supported bombing that killed some hundreds of innocent people to gain something a lot less good than the saving of 10,000,000,000 babies!

BTW, some people refuse to answer the question, or get angry at being asked.

 

[Avatar]

10,000,000,000 babies down would solve any overpopulation problem on any medium/small sized planet