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Old 07-28-2005, 09:07 AM   #35 (permalink)
Blue Fish
Tilted
 
Location: NJ, USA
#1 5 Live
#2 5 Die

The hospital has broken even for the day

In a hypothetical like this you can add in other factors. In #1, what if the higher dose patient was responsible for a cure for cancer but his research would be lost with his death. By administering him one of the smaller doses you can prolong his life long enough to get more antidote. But, 1 of the other 5 is now left with none. One person is still going to die (and 5 will still live) but a decision has to be made on which life is more valuable. My decision would be to save the researcher and use a random method to choose the other 4. At some point the good of others has to be taken into account.

As for #2, the broken finger adds nothing to the decision. Killing this man would be no different then opening the front door of the hospital and grabbing the first person who walks by. You are randomly killing the living to save others who are already dying.
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