Monday, February 23, 2015

Moral Dilemma: Life or Death

Moral Dilemma: You and President Obama are in a plane alone together. The plane’s engine fails; President Obama, for reasons unknown, has no parachute, but you do. Do you give him your parachute and die, or do you keep your parachute and let him die? Why?

Problem: The main problem I see with this situation is that it seems like a lose-lose situation.  If I give the president my parachute, I will die. If I keep my parachute and survive, there is a good chance I will be imprisoned for the rest of my life taking the blame for the death of the president.

Claim: in that situation, I would not hesitate to keep my parachute. If questioned about the presidents’ death, I would lie and say that he used the last moments of his life heroically to save my life by giving me his parachute.  In the reverse situation, if I gave the president my parachute, I would make him promise to make sure that my family was taken care of financially.

Reason: I would keep my parachute out of the sheer human instinct to survive. It’s either him or me. If I have to fight him for the parachute, so be it.


Principle: if that scenario actually happened I would stick by my decision to keep my parachute. 

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