Who needs Scruples? 10 Ethical Questions...

[moriah]

Let's see DUers answer. Some of you may have already seen this list, it's pretty old. But the answers are always interesting.

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Please answer the following as with as much detail or succinctness as you desire. Use one word or ten pages, but please answer.

(1) A man places a gun in your hand, and proceeds to conclusively prove that if you do not kill another innocent man (who he points out) in the next hour, that man will step in front of a bus which will then go over a bridge and kill 30 schoolchildren. What do you do?

(2) It is twenty years in the future. World Chancellor Newt Gingrich has banned the works of Shakespeare. The one remaining copy is trapped in a burning building. You can either save it or rescue a young woman trapped in an adjoining room. Which do you save?

(3) If you could choose to have either one true friend or one good lover for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

(4) You dog gets really sick. The vet says he needs an operation which will completely cure him but will cost $10,000. Do you pay?

(5) What if it's your cat?

(6) In a foreign country, you are unjustly convicted of stealing. The judge offers you the choice of being permanently and totally blinded, deafened, or struck dumb. What do you tell him?

(7) If someone lies to you, how long before you trust them again?

(8) Your best friend is driving you to get something to eat. He is careless going around a turn and hits an old woman crossing the street. She's obviously killed, but no one sees and there is no damage to or marks on his car. He does not turn himself in. Do you?

(9) How much money would it take to get you to blow a Shetland pony?

(10) Your best friend/lover/mom/wife/whatever (the person you care for most) is placed in a room with you by a maniacal psycopath. Said psycopath then starts filling the room with water and tells you unless you kill yourself or the other person he will flood the room and kill you both. You know from media reports that this psycopath will do exactly as he says. What is your response?

[moriah]

1. My answers:

1) When I first saw it, I dodged. I probably could not kill the person. I would try any other way to prevent the accident with the foreknowledge I'd been given, but I couldn't shoot them.

2) Save the woman...

3) The true friend.

4) Yes....

5) Yes.... and it may be happening soon, if he gets blocked again they want to do surgery.

6) Struck dumb, I type more than I talk.

7) It depends on how big the lie is.

8) I would turn him in.

9) More than the national debt.

10) I'd kill myself.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. Responses...

(1) A man places a gun in your hand, and proceeds to conclusively prove that if you do not kill another innocent man (who he points out) in the next hour, that man will step in front of a bus which will then go over a bridge and kill 30 schoolchildren. What do you do?

I wouldn't kill the innocent man. (I'm assuming I can't say that I'd try some other means of saving the kids.)

(2) It is twenty years in the future. World Chancellor Newt Gingrich has banned the works of Shakespeare. The one remaining copy is trapped in a burning building. You can either save it or rescue a young woman trapped in an adjoining room. Which do you save?

Save the woman. There are millions of people who have memorized Shakespeare and can reproduce it.

(3) If you could choose to have either one true friend or one good lover for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

The true friend.

(4) You dog gets really sick. The vet says he needs an operation which will completely cure him but will cost $10,000. Do you pay?

Yes and I very nearly hit that number once.

(5) What if it's your cat?

Get another one.

(6) In a foreign country, you are unjustly convicted of stealing. The judge offers you the choice of being permanently and totally blinded, deafened, or struck dumb. What do you tell him?

Struck dumb.

(7) If someone lies to you, how long before you trust them again?

If the lie was for personal gain, never again. If they were lying to protect someone or soften a blow or something, I might trust him right away.

(8) Your best friend is driving you to get something to eat. He is careless going around a turn and hits an old woman crossing the street. She's obviously killed, but no one sees and there is no damage to or marks on his car. He does not turn himself in. Do you?

Yes.

(9) How much money would it take to get you to blow a Shetland pony?

More money than there is but still lightly less than for blowing World Chancellor Newt Gingrich.

(10) Your best friend/lover/mom/wife/whatever (the person you care for most) is placed in a room with you by a maniacal psycopath. Said psycopath then starts filling the room with water and tells you unless you kill yourself or the other person he will flood the room and kill you both. You know from media reports that this psycopath will do exactly as he says. What is your response?

Kill myself.

[NJmaverick]

3. OK

1) shoot him in the leg, I am pretty sure that will keep him from walking in front of any buses.

2) The woman; people before things

3) Good lover, I can get by with OK friends

4) How old is my dog? Young I would pay, but if they were getting up there in years, I would probably let him pass.

5) How old is my cat? see above

6) Dumb, I could get one of those cool Steven Hawkings machines

7) Depends on how long I have known them and how bad the lie was

8) Turn them in a heart beat. No friend of mine would do something like that

9) How good looking is the pony?

10) Kill myself

[Chan790]

4. These were easy.

Please answer the following as with as much detail or succinctness as you desire. Use one word or ten pages, but please answer.

(1) Leg him in the thigh. There is no *$%&#@ way that SOB is walking in front of the bus with a gaping leg wound.

(2) Neither. I report that the last remaining work of Shakespeare and a young woman are trapped in a burning building and wait for the Gingrichites and maybe Newt himself to show up for a bonfire-gala/book-burning and carry-off some sort of guerrilla-attack. This all of course is moot as the possibility of Newt as World Chancellor is nil, as he is an anti-globalist.

(3) Lover. Who needs friends if you never need to get out of bed.

(4) Yes. No question.

(5) Yes. No question.

(6) Dumb. I hate my voice anyways and I really need the other two. I'd much rather express myself through writing.

(7) A week or so. I'm a sucker, I know it.

(8) Hell no...I'm already compiling a file of provisional alibis.

(9) No amount of money would suffice. Truly. It's that whole ethical vegetarian thing.

(10) "Hey man...go fuck yourself." (Everybody knows that you're both dying anyways, regardless of what the killer has said.)

[Deja Q]

5. Oh, very well, here we go with what I've got to say

1) If the proof is evidence in a court of law, I would save the childrens' lives
2) Hmm, is she Newt's 8th wife, destined to be in the hospital with cancer so he'll promptly divorce her and not get the post-life insurance money? Wait, what's the question again?
3) True friend. Once the sexual energy fades, friendship is left.
4) How old is the dog?
5) As with dogs, I'm allergic to cats.
6) That their justice system's illogic has dumbfounded me, which makes me blind and deaf to supporting their cause. (otherwise, why would I be there in the first place)
7) Depends on the context for which said lie is given
8) No, I would not turn myself in. I wasn't driving. Now, do I turn him in? Well, all I can say is, I'm glad he didn't smoke marijuana... (note to archives - this one is a bit more topical than the other responses... to directly answer the question, I would turn him in. Narc narc narc, go suck a spark.)
9) To blow what on a Shetland pony?
10) Only if we don't kill him first. If he's a known psycho, who didn't give him the death penalty in the first place so others would be put into this dastardly situation?

[Lyric]

6. Answers:

(1) A man places a gun in your hand, and proceeds to conclusively prove that if you do not kill another innocent man (who he points out) in the next hour, that man will step in front of a bus which will then go over a bridge and kill 30 schoolchildren. What do you do?

Shoot the man himself.

(2) It is twenty years in the future. World Chancellor Newt Gingrich has banned the works of Shakespeare. The one remaining copy is trapped in a burning building. You can either save it or rescue a young woman trapped in an adjoining room. Which do you save?

The woman. Lots of people have Shakespeare memorized enough to re-transcribe out a copy. I'd just need to find them.

(3) If you could choose to have either one true friend or one good lover for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

Rhythm.

(4) You dog gets really sick. The vet says he needs an operation which will completely cure him but will cost $10,000. Do you pay?

No. I don't have it, nor could I get it. If there was a chance for a recovery without surgery, we'd do whatever else we could afford. If not...I'd have him put down while holding him in my arms as tightly as I could, telling him how much I love him.

(5) What if it's your cat?

Same deal. It's easy to decide when you're too poor to have any choice in the matter.

(6) In a foreign country, you are unjustly convicted of stealing. The judge offers you the choice of being permanently and totally blinded, deafened, or struck dumb. What do you tell him?

I'd rather lose the ability to speak. Once I got back home, there are surgeries and devices that can replace/repair the tongue or larynx, so I'd have a good chance of recovering the ability later.

(7) If someone lies to you, how long before you trust them again?

It depends on how serious the lie is. I don't really care about little lies, but big ones are different. I can start to trust again as soon as I'm sure that they're sorry, but that trust isn't fully complete for a long time.

(8) Your best friend is driving you to get something to eat. He is careless going around a turn and hits an old woman crossing the street. She's obviously killed, but no one sees and there is no damage to or marks on his car. He does not turn himself in. Do you?

I'd tell him that he needs to turn *himself* in, and that if he doesn't, I'm going to tell the police myself.

(9) How much money would it take to get you to blow a Shetland pony?

Seriously? Enough to pay for college for me, Rhythm, and LyricKid, with enough additional to live a comfortable (NOT lavish) life until I die of old age, and leave something substantial for my grandchildren. So maybe a few million? But they'd have to guarantee that the pony couldn't hurt me, and that it would at least be clean. It's just a penis, in the end. As long as it's clean, I could get through it for the sake of giving my family an easier life.

(10) Your best friend/lover/mom/wife/whatever (the person you care for most) is placed in a room with you by a maniacal psycopath. Said psycopath then starts filling the room with water and tells you unless you kill yourself or the other person he will flood the room and kill you both. You know from media reports that this psycopath will do exactly as he says. What is your response?

To clarify--the media reports that he always lets the one left alive go free, without injury? The water will stop and he'll let someone go the minute I shoot one of us? 'Cause if I can be sure of that, I'd tell Rhythm to make sure that LyricKid knows that I love him and use the gun on myself.