Barbara is a surgeon working at a major hospital. One day, she is caring for five young patients who are all dying because of the failure of a different organ. Barbara can save all five patients if she kills one healthy old man who is visiting the hospital for a routine check-up, removes his organs, and distributes them to the dying people. Is it permissible for Barbara to kill the man?
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Forbidden
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Permissible
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I rate this scenario a "1;" it is forbidden for Barbara to kill this one old man, even though she will be saving five young patients. This act is much more direct than the scenario of the train driver, stated earlier. The old man, does nothing wrong; he is healthy, solely visiting the hospital for a check up. But he is old and the patients are young, dying when, (we assume) they could have their whole life in front of them to help society. What has the elderly man done to deserve such a fate? How do we know he isn't a dedicated civil servant, living happily after giving back to the world? We know nothing about the patients or the old man; thus there is a sense of disconnection. Yet, by killing the old man, Barbara enacts a much more direct type of murder than in the first scenario. She is CHOOSING to take someones life. Thus, one may feel a greater sense of connection to the man in harms way than in the first scenario.
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