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Trolley Problem Vs Transplant Surgeon Problem

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There are many different forms of ethical theories that exist today and can be used to explain the reasoning behind human actions. For example, an individual has their own motives and intentions so that might cause them to act out differently than somebody else. Regardless of your intent, all behavior has consequences. The Utilitarianism point of view is a commonly used form that an action is morally correct if the outcome of that action is most favorable to the majority of people. 1. In the Trolley Problem a person has to choose between two outcomes. You can either let the train continue down the path and kill five people who have all been tied down to the track, or you can flip the switch that you have control over and divert the train to …show more content…

Both the Trolley Problem and the Transplant Surgeon Problem are situations that’s actions, or inactions, have consequences of life or death. With that being said I do have my own opinion that there is a correct choice in both hypothetical situations. In the Trolley Problem, I believe that it would be correct to pull the switch and save the lives of five people who were tied down. Some people argue that it was their fate to die on that track, but I don’t believe that because some evil being physically tied them down there against their will. For that reason, I believe that it would be better to save the lives of five innocent people at the expense of the one on the opposite track. It is the more favorable action that rescues more people because regardless of the decision somebody is going to die. Now, in the Transplant Surgeon Problem I think that the healthy man shouldn’t die. Even though, doing so has the potential of saving five lives I don’t think that it is the morally right thing to do. Just because he doesn’t have friends or family doesn’t mean that he can’t live his life happily or to its full potential. The man’s life shouldn’t be cut short because another human said so, just in order to save more people. I believe that in this situation if the surgeon killed the healthy man he would be messing with fate, which is wrong. Maybe those other five sick patients weren’t meant to live as harsh as that

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We have the responsibility to protect and help those less fortunate, but we cannot let our own ideals cloud the issues at hand” (MacKay 158). By providing an argument about moral issues, MacKay is better able to provide a new perspective to the reader and perhaps a new mindset. Additionally, MacKay claims those awaiting for the benefits of a transplant, including the buyer and seller would discredit those who claim this process is morally wrong. Due to the fact that not many people can relate to the situation of the buyer and seller, MacKay questions our moral stances and if they are worth depriving thousands of people from a chance to live. Not only would the patient be suffering, but the poor would as well, the author claims, “There are other people so poor that the sale of a kidney is worth the profit...

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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

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The Terri Schiavo case was a huge start of the “Right to Die” movement, the underlying cause of Schiavo’s collapse was never given a diagnosis. Consequentialist moral theories focus on how much good can result from an action. Non Consequentialist moral theories or Deontological theories, consider not the consequences of an action but whether they fulfill a duty. Some theories that can be used include utilitarianism, Kant’s ethics and natural law theory. Being aware of the case already, I believe there should be some sort of law that gives doctors to comply with the wishes of the patient if they are in a lot of distress.

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897 Witte Precis 2 In The Survival Lottery, John Harris argues about the difference between killing and letting die. He presents this information through questioning it in a thought experiment. In the thought experiment he presents a situation where two people are in need of organ transplants like a heart and set of lungs. If there is a stock of spare organs then to save the lives of the patients, all that the doctors would have to do would be to do the transplant. If they refused to do the surgery and the patient died as a result then the doctors essentially killed their patients.

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If you decide not do anything then the five people would be executed however, if you pulled the lever only one person would be killed. Spur scenario is an ethical dilemma in which one has to choose between letting five people be killed or choosing to kill the one. Another case is the Loop in which the Fat Man would be a means to an end . For this case, you would be viewing the Fat Man as an object rather than a human being. If you decide to push him, you are using him as a means to stop the train without a consideration of his

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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.

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According to an article by Donate Life America titled "Statistics," “An average of 21 people die each day because the organs they need are not donated in time” (Donate Life America). With the advancements in technology, scientists can clone cells and organs to use for transplants now. However, this topic has elicited various debates. The debate that this argument focuses on is its morality. Before explaining the controversy, some definitions are needed.

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Say you are a doctor and working at a hospital in the middle of nowhere. There are five patients in need of organs, but the hospital doesn't have any organs for them at the time. There is a sixth patient that is an organ donor and is in need of medicine. If you give the medicine to the sixth patient they will live or if you don't they will die and you can use their organs to save the other five patients. So the question is would you kill patient six to save the five patients that are in need of organs, or give the medicine to patient six and let the five patients die?

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To deal with these dilemmas, utilitarianism and duty ethics theories should be taken into account. For a utilitarian decision maker, who will attempt to maximize the sum of utility for all concerned (Kvalnes, 2015), the third person should pull the switch or push the fat man to reduce the killings from five persons to one person; that is, keeping the number of people died to a minimum. In contrast, in duty ethics perspectives, there are moral considerations more important than

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We need a way to save these lives, and we have one: Organ donation. When you become an organ donor, you can saves the lives up to eight people. Controversy surrounds this option for many reasons, and some do not find this option to be ethical but most believe it is what God’s calls us to do. The Catholic sees it as love and charity.

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Life or Death Who chooses death over life? Sometimes we have to make this decision over a loved one when there is no hope for their recovery. It would be incredibly hard to make this life or death decision on another human being and twice as hard when it is someone we love. The author discusses the argument of this controversial topic of sustaining life at any cost or dying peacefully as an ethical issue. An ethicist, a person who specializes in or writes on ethics, can provide valuable discernment with respect to right and wrong motives or actions.

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The Survival Lottery The idea of the “survival lottery” helps maximize the amount of lives that can be saved by doctors. It allows doctors to receive organ donations from healthy people, who are randomly selected to die and donate their organs to medicine, rather than having no choice but to let the innocent patient(s) die due to a lack of readily available organs. The point of the survival lottery is to make sure that as few humans die as possible, hence why it is acceptable to kill one person to possibly save two (or even more). I will argue that is not morally permissible to institute a survival lottery because all people expose themselves to different amounts of risks during their respective lives.

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However, donation involves asking ethical questions because the treatment affects not only the people in need of transplants but also the individuals who donate. The main reason why people may consider donating organs is because of the very great benefit that this can bring to others. On the other hand, some find the idea of organ donation too invasive. Those people believe that it is wrong to take organs from people. The decision to or not to donate is a moral decision.

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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?

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By pushing the fat man onto the tracks and stopping the runaway trolley; the fat man will die. However, five lives will be saved. What should he do? (Clark

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