Core

[zonemind]

Three Precepts

Comments

[notthebuddha]

I'm not sure our cultural ethos demands an overt act to switch the train away from the thousand-strangers-die track to the own-child-dies siding, unless the decider has pre-existing responsibility to the strangers. For example, the railroad switchman would indeed be expected to choose the thousand strangers over his own child, even if the child's presence on the siding was totally innocent. But if it was my child, and the switchman needed my help to change the train over, I wouldn't feel my society expected to do it, any more than spouses are expected to testify against each other.

(I'm pretty sure that most people in our society would expect me to freeze in horrified indecision, let the strangers die, and become a nervous wreck for the rest of my miserable life or until one of the strangers' families killed me in revenge.)

[zonemind]

I think I'll rejigger the example so I can use a subset of society or use something non-death-related. But, in the cultural milieu I grew up in, sacrificing your child for strangers has a particularly significant resonance…

Thanks for commenting.