COLUMN: In moral dilemmas, choose the solution that saves the most lives

---

by Corey Pie

---

What is that supposed to mean? Is it from some strange cult that meets in bell tower at nights? Is it yet another nickname for some new drug on the street?

Well, actually, there was a little more to it than that. Here's the scenario: You're on a hill. You have a rifle and perfect aim. You see at a distance a train out of control and flying at these four people.

You somehow know that it will kill all of them.

You also see a fat man standing sort of near the tracks. You realize that if you shoot him from where you are, he'll fall on the tracks, his mass will stop the train, and the other four will be saved.

Nobody sees you, so you don't have to worry about being tried for murder. Except, of course, in your mind.

So, do you shoot the fat man? He wouldn't have died unless you shot him.

I know this is a Rice crowd and all of you are thinking, "I could shoot something inanimate and make it fall on the track" or "I could run and jump onto the track myself!"

Sorry, this is my game.

There's nothing else to shoot and you don't have enough mass to stop the train. You only have two choices: To shoot, or not to shoot.

That is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to pull the trigger and stop outrageous misfortune ... Sorry, I love Shakespeare.

I almost laughed it off at first. What a silly question.

But then I thought, "What would I do?"

I told him I think the fat man should be shot because unless you're going to rate one human life as worth more or less than another, you have to save the four.

Four lives have to be worth more than one.

I then added that if I was actually there I wouldn't be able to shoot him.

I guess it's that Judeo-Christian upbringing, but my instincts won't let me kill somebody I don't know. Especially since, knowing me, I'd be dumb enough to leave a bloody glove on the site or something like that. But I did think, morally, it should be done.

My friend, of course, disagreed. He said that the man wasn't supposed to die. He wasn't in the picture and I killed him. That's wrong, he said.

He said I'm making a moral decision for somebody else that I probably wouldn't even choose myself if I were in his situation.

He was right that, to be honest, I probably wouldn't jump in front of the train myself, but my point is that I should make that jump.

This is tough. What about the fact that if you don't kill him, you're really killing the other four by your inaction. Is that just as bad? I guess it depends on how much you believe in fate.

Were the four fated to die as part of some master plan, and you stepped in the way? Or maybe it was fate that you killed the fat man. Or maybe I'm asking too many questions. Naw!

What if I were the fat man, just sitting there enjoying the view, waiting for my train, twiddling my thumbs, rolling my fat into different amusing shapes?

"Look, a clover!"

And out of nowhere a bullet nails me in the back, I fall forward gasping, hoping the bullet didn't hurt anything important, and I look up to realize that it doesn't really matter what the bullet hit as the train crushes my very existence into a pile of lard.

Now is that anyway to go? Is it fair to do that to him? Was it fair for me to make you read such a long sentence?

Maybe he would have agreed to stop it had you asked him, but you just blew him away! Maybe this is too cruel.

Well, this is an opinions section, so I am free to give mine.

Shoot him. It's not mean, it's not bloodthirsty. It's merely economical. The world is going to lose something; you might as well cut its losses to one man instead of four.

P.S. The man in this scenario was fat only to make it at least a little plausable that he could somehow stop the train. It was in no way a subliminal message to kill the overweight as part of some diabolical plot to make the world safe for the blubberly challenged.

Corey Pié is a Sid Richardson College sophomore.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the September 15, 1995 issue.

Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights Reserved.
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of:
The Rice Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA.