Friday, June 19, 2009

Philosophy Experiment Part Two [finally]: The Surgeon Situation

I am sorry that it took me so long to post this sequel to part one (The Trolley Problem). Time got the best of me.

If you have not completed part one, please find the previous post entitled "Philosophy Experiment Part One: The Trolley Problem" and complete that before moving on to part two. Thank you.

For those of you who have already completed part one, I will just quickly remind you of the rules:
Here is how this experiment will work. I am about to present you with a situation. Your job is to then select one of two actions you would take if faced by the situation. You can keep your choice to yourself or post it in a comment. You may not give an explanation, ask questions, or think about your answer for too long. I want your intuitive decision. This first part is purely for you to state your decision. I will ask for the reasoning in a later part.

Now, here is the situation:
You are a doctor in a hospital. You have five patients who are all dying. Their only chance to live is to get organ transplants, but they are too far down on the list. You have two options. You can kill one of the hospital nurses and use their healthy organs to cure the five patients. Or you can let the five patients die.

Let the five die or kill the one?

For the sake of this experiment, go with your intuition. In the actual situation, you would only have moments to decide anyways.
Don't ask questions.
Don't explain your reasons [yet].
Just answer.