What do you think...?

Is there a right murder? A murder that can be justified?

Yes

No

Maybe...

Let's say there is a cablecar. It's travelling down the mountain and the driver (you) looks up to see that there is a man in the way of the car, whom, if run over, will die. Somehow you know there is no way he could live if you hit him, but there is another road. A road with five men, working on the line. You have two choices, continue going straight to kill the one man or turn the wheel to kill the five men. What do you do?

Continue straight to hit the one man.

Turn to hit the five construction workers.

Why did you do what you did?

Now let's imagine you aren't the driver but a person on a bridge overlooking the cablecar, an innocent pedestrian. You can see that the cablecar is looming toward the people but you think you know how to stop it. You glance to your left, and see a very... fat person. This person, if lifted and tossed over the edge of the bridge would land in front of the cablecar to stop it and save the lives of the men on the tracks but, killing the person you heaved over. In this scenerio you know that the person would land in the correct spot and would stop the car, you also know that they would end up dying. What do you do?

Push the fat person over the bridge, killing them in the process.

Let the cablecar continue on its way to kill either the one person or the five.

Why did you do what you did?

By now you've grown afraid of cablecars so you work as a doctor. As a doctor you only have so many hours in the day and one day, you get six paitents in your care. One of these people has a very serious injury that would take all day to fix while the other five have little injuries that would (when added together) also take all day. If you choose one the other will die. What do you do?

Save the patient with the serious injury, killing the other five.

Save the patients with the less serious injuries, killing the other one.

Why did you do what you did?

If the patient with the serious injury came into your care before the others, what would your answer be?

I'd change it to saving the one with the more serious injury.

I would keep my answer and save the one with a serious injury.

I'd change it to saving the ones with less serious injuries.

I would keep my answer and save the ones with less serious injuries.

You are on a ship, this ship crashes into an iceburg and sinks. People flood into smaller boats and rafts, you get on a raft and watch as the boat sinks into the ocean. People climb aboard the raft until it is barely staying afloat. A small girl grabs onto your hand, she is in the water outside the small raft. The raft starts to fill with water immediataly. The five people in the raft will surely drown if the girl continues to hang onto your sleeve but she will drown if you let her go. What do you do?

Try to save the girl, letting the raft-full of people die.

Push away the girl, letting the raft-full of people live.

Why did you do what you did?

Now, to see if your opinion changed: Is there a right murder? A murder that can be justified?

Yes

No

Would any of the examples explained above be considered murder? If so, which?