Before you ask, no, this week’s post isn’t a Your Momma joke! It’s another in a series of questions about the moral problem of the trolley. Last week’s poll was interesting; in the population at large, most people would choose to push the fat villain in front of the trolley in order to save the five people he had tied up there. However, readers of this blog were much more evenly split. Several said that they would not push the fat villain, instead, letting the five die. Admittedly, I would be interested in hearing why some of you chose this option.
The typical response given for those who choose to push the villain is that something along the lines of justice is being served.
In our original trolley question, a majority of the readers said they would flip a switch that would kill one person but save five. This week, we take another direction with that question:
As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You can flip a switch and divert the train to run one person over instead of five, but that person is your mother. Would you flip the switch? Let us know why in the comments!
