Ethical Dilemmas

[Socky the Sock.]

Dilemma Three

You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son who tried to escape and wants you to pull the chair from underneath him. He says that if you don’t he will not only kill your son but some other innocent inmate as well. You don’t have any doubt that he means what he says. What should you do?

[Aussie]

Tell him to bite his arse. I do not get to own his sadism. He gets to do his own shit.

Sorry, Darko.....either way you are stuffed.

[Socky the Sock.]

Tell him to bite his arse. I do not get to own his sadism. He gets to do his own shit.

So you would not pull the chair from under your son in order to save the life of another innocent even though your son is dead no matter how you act? Why? Because you would rather another innocent dies at your hands than succumb to the master's sadism? Why?

[Aussie]

I do not get to own his sadism. He gets to do his own shit.

[Socky the Sock.]

I do not get to own his sadism. He gets to do his own shit.

Yep. I got that. Let me try it from a different angle. You do not cause the death of your son. He will die no matter what you do or do not do. However, you do have the power to stop the death of another innocent but you choose not to and therefore become complicate in their death. In simple terms... if you push the chair away, you save a life... if you do not push the chair away, you cause another death.

How would you console yourself having caused the death of an innocent?

(Just a note to all... the dilemmas are now getting much more difficult... there are no right or wrong answers... just explanations which are more or less compelling.)

[Aussie]

However, you do have the power to stop the death of another innocent but you choose not to and therefore become complicate in their death. In simple terms... if you push the chair away, you save a life... if you do not push the chair away, you cause another death.

How would you console yourself having caused the death of an innocent?

The Sadist would kill that person, even if I pushed the chair. That is what sadists do.

I would feel fine. I killed no-one, and neither did I cause the death of another.

[Socky the Sock.]

However, you do have the power to stop the death of another innocent but you choose not to and therefore become complicate in their death. In simple terms... if you push the chair away, you save a life... if you do not push the chair away, you cause another death.

How would you console yourself having caused the death of an innocent?

The Sadist would kill that person, even if I pushed the chair. That is what sadists do.

I would feel fine. I killed no-one, and neither did I cause the death of another.

Nice one Aussie. I agree with you. Bottom line: Concentration camps did not respect the persons right to life and liberty so regardless of the threat... innocents will die. The person who acts to push the chair and cause the death of their child in the vain hope that an innocent will survive will suffer more so for that act as they learn that innocents will die regardless.

[Socky the Sock.]

You are senior nurse in charge of the post operative care facility in a community hospital. The incidence of deaths following apparently successful surgery has been unusually high in the past two months. The physicians whose patients have died are under contract to Medicare which maintains tight budgetary control. The physicians have not ordered autopsies on any of the casualties although several of them shared similar unusual symptoms.

What are your ethical options, or does doctor know best?

[Ethnic]

Can doctors refuse autopsies?

[Socky the Sock.]

Can doctors refuse autopsies?

Nothing in the thought experiment suggests they have refused an autopsy... merely that they did not order them. Doctors definitely can choose to order an autopsy or not.