ipl-logo

Ethical Dilemmas: The Runaway Trolley Car

462 Words2 Pages

One will face many ethical dilemmas in his or her lifetime. Many try to decide what the right thing to do is based off of their thoughts, their beliefs, and what the particular situation is. However, there is normally not a clear correct answer when it comes to making an ethical decision, or else it would not be a dilemma at all. The classical, theoretical ethical dilemma that many have been asked to decide through the years is the situation of the runaway trolley car. In this scenario, a trolley car is traveling uncontrollably towards helpless individuals. One faces the decision to let the trolley car continue on its current path, killing five people, or to flip a switch which will change the trolley car’s direction and only kill one person (Sokol 269). Faced with this ethical dilemma, there are two different ethical standards that support one’s decision in whether or not he or she flips the switch. The utilitarian approach suggests that one choose the outcome that would do less overall harm and, therefore, do more good (Meyer et al. 276). When applying this particular method of approach to this situation, the ethical decision to be made would be …show more content…

277). By using this approach, the decision made depends on what type of person one is. One may believe that by flipping the switch he or she acted as a hero by saving five lives and only ending one life. However, one may also believe that the trolley car was already on path to kill five people, and by deciding to flip the switch, he or she took a murderous action by choosing to change the trolley car’s direction and kill someone else. When taking the virtues approach to decide what to do in an ethical situation, the decision one believes to be the right action to take depends on the type of person that he or she

Show More
Related

The Trolley Problem By Philippa Foot Summary

1497 Words | 6 Pages

We shall explore these terms further when it becomes absolutely necessary to nit-pick, but for Foot’s argument they hold. In the Trolley Problem, the driver finds his trolley hurtling towards five souls on the track. His brakes fail. He has the option of diverting the train onto a spur, but will run over a single person on this track. Since he will kill

Read More

The Trolley Problem By Phillipa Foot

719 Words | 3 Pages

A nearby bystander can divert the trolley onto a different track with only one person on it. To fulfil his positive duties towards the five to prevent them from dying, he must violate his negative duty not to bring harm to the one. This confronts Foot’s argument by highlighting the permissibility to override one’s negative duty for the positive duties of the five others—suggesting no moral distinction exists between killing and letting die. Foot replies to this by claiming this is a situation of diverting a fatal sequence instead of initiating the fatal

Read More

What Are Two Scenarios That Are Central To The Trolley Problem

762 Words | 4 Pages

Skill 2 In Thomson’s paper, she tries to provide a solution to the “The Trolley Problem”, where “one will die if the agent acts, but five will live who would otherwise die”(Thomson, pg.2). The two scenarios that are central to “The Trolley Problem” are the Trolley and Transplant scenarios. The first scenario has a trolley driver in a runaway trolley who they can either choose to crash into five workers or pull the switch and turn the trolley to crash into one instead (Thomson, pg.2). The second scenario is about a surgeon who can choose to kill one healthy patient or five patients who are about to die from organ failure (Thomson, pg.2).

Read More

Summary Of Philippa Foot On Abortion And The Doctrine Of Double Effect

196 Words | 1 Pages

Philippa Foot presented a series of moral dilemmas when she discussed abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect. One famous problem of her was the trolley dilemma: “..he is the driver of a runaway tram which he can only steer from one narrow track onto another; five men are working on one track and one on the other; anyone the tack he enters is bound to be killed.” (Foot, 1967, p. 2) What should the driver do? Despite what he does, he will harm someone!1

Read More

Majority Act Case

1229 Words | 5 Pages

The risk, benefits and consequences of each decision must be compared before an ethical decision can be made. Supporting

Read More

Ethical Dilemmas In Health And Social Care

359 Words | 2 Pages

In the UK, policies for health, safety and security are not only give positive impact it also creates dilemma in relation to implement. Dilemma refers to a situation in which a difficult choice has to he made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones. There are different types of dilemma in safety. This includes * Resource implications

Read More

John Stuart Mill: The Train To The Right Killing One Person

417 Words | 2 Pages

I think I will divert the train to the right killing one person because one person is less important than five. Sometimes it is important to do what is right than what is morally good to do. The utilitarianism is a moral theory that gives happiness to the number of people in the society and it has been considered greatness, an action is morally appropriate if its outcomes lead to happiness and wrong if it results in sadness. I will begin by describing what Mill might do in the Trolley situation. Next, I will contrast what Kant might do in this situation and lastly, I will be also going to give my opinion on this Trolley situation.

Read More

Literary Devices In The Odyssey

297 Words | 2 Pages

Provide significant details about the author (120-1): Homer was probably from the Western Asia Minor, he might have been a rhapsody who performed for an audience. Style5 conventions (121) - Stock epithet- a way an author describes someone or something with a phrase or word Philosophies (Women)- He made most of his goddesses in his epics more powerful than the gods often. This might mean that he might have had more respect for women, therefore he made them more mighty in his epics. Criticism-

Read More

Summary Of Bernard Williams A Critique Of Utilitarianism

1565 Words | 7 Pages

Bernard Williams’ essay, A Critique of Utilitarianism, launches a rather scathing criticism of J. J. C. Smart’s, An Outline of a System of Utilitarian ethics. Even though Williams claims his essay is not a direct response to Smart’s paper, the manner in which he constantly refers to Smart’s work indicates that Smart’s version of Utilitarianism, referred to as act-Utilitarianism, is the main focus of Williams’ critique. Smart illustrates the distinction between act-Utilitarianism and rule-Utilitarianism early on in his work. He says that act-Utilitarianism is the idea that the rightness of an action depends on the total goodness of an action’s consequences.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Trolley Problem

2262 Words | 10 Pages

Trolley problem, initiated by Philippa Foot, is a situation in which there is a runaway trolley and the only way to save five people on the tracks is to sacrifice one person (Kvalnes, 2015). There are many versions of the trolley problem with regard to how the one should be sacrificed, make trade-offs in order for five persons to be saved. In this paper, there are two trolley case used to compare with the autonomous car case. The first case, called the switch case, come from Philippa Foot (1967), in which there is a third person who are standing next to a signal switch.

Read More

Ethical Issues In The Film Groundhog Day

1360 Words | 6 Pages

The concept of ethics entails systemizing, justifying, and recommending right and wrong conduct. It involves in practical reasoning: good, right, duty, obligation, virtue, freedom, rationality, and choice. Humanity has questioned this concept of ethics and ‘good’ for as long as it has survived, as it deals with real-life issues such as “what is morally right and wrong?” and “how do people ought to act?”

Read More

Essay On Divine Command Theory

1218 Words | 5 Pages

The main principle of utilitarianism is happiness. People who follow this theory strive to fulfill the “ultimate good”. The “ultimate good” is defined as ultimate pleasure with out any pain. It is said that the pleasure can be of any quantity and any quality, but pleasures that are weighted more important are put at a higher level than others that are below it. This ethical theory also states that if society would fully embrace utilitarianism then people would naturally realize their moral standing in the

Read More

Strengths And Weaknesses Of Utilitarianism

1711 Words | 7 Pages

Suppose a conductor is driving his train and the breaks are defect. The rails lead directly into a cluster of five people who would all die if the train will go this direction. However, the conductor can change onto another track where only one person is standing hence only one person would die. How should the conductor react (Hare, 1964)? Is it possible to condense the problem to a rather simple maximization problem in example that the action is taken, which would kill the least people?

Read More

Personal Ethics Essay

1045 Words | 5 Pages

When analyzing ethics, it is hard to determine whether the choices we make are justified or ethical. Throughout my growth I have experience many situations that caused me to question my values and

Read More

Reflection On Ethical Decision Making

1399 Words | 6 Pages

One of those most challenging areas I have experience during my current placement is ethical decision-making. We studied many possible scenarios during our Values, Ethics and Professional Issues class, and discussed the various types of decision-making models to help guide us when having to make difficult decisions. While the class was invaluable, because it helped me identify my own biases, and also shed light on how I have made decisions in the past and how I can possibly make decisions in the future, I knew that having to make real-life decisions would not be so cut and dry. This placement has been challenging for me, because my ongoing assignment with one of my supervisors requires constant ethical decision-making, sometimes even in the

Read More

More about Ethical Dilemmas: The Runaway Trolley Car

Related Topics

Open Document