Re: The "Ticking Bomb Question"

chrisvillar@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:

> > Contrary to popular opinion, a million people are not worth more than
> > one person.
>
> That is a debatable ethical and philosophical position. That statement
> is the equivalent of "A million unnecessary deaths are not worse than
> one unnecessary death." A lot of people would have a problem with
> that.


So what? My sig says it all. What most people think is rarely correct.


> And I think the crux of the hypothetical situation is that you don't
> get to abstain from a decision. Regardless of whether a million people
> are equivalent to one, you still are forced to make a choice. So which
> would it be?


I'm not making choices about murder. You go right ahead. I choose neither.


There is no way to assess the value of a human life; hence there is no
way to determine whether one million lives are worth more than one.
>From a purely utilitarian standpoint, suppose that one person will
eventually develop the cure for cancer while the million will simply
live out their lives without affecting significant change on the rest
of the human race. Is his life worth more than the million? Once
again, there's no way to know or measure that.


--
"The majority of the people are not so afraid of holding a wrong opinion,
as they are of holding an opinion alone."
-- Soren Kierkegaard
.

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