[Anon] [Text]

[crouching_sin]

Here's a question for you all. It's something that I read a while back, and I'm interested in your answers. Anonymous is fine, if you want.

There are five patients in a hospital. All of them are dying due to complications with various organs. All of them will die within the next day or so if they don't get an organ transplant. Magic won't save any of them, incidentally, if you were hoping to use that.

A young backpacker comes into the hospital or a checkup. He has no relatives, and he is in excellent health. As it happens, you, the surgeon on duty, notice that he is a perfect match for all five of the patients.

Assuming the backpacker does not give consent, is it morally permissible to cut him up and transfer the organs to the other patients? These are not organs that the backpacker can live without, so he'll die if you do.

I'm interested to hear what you think.

Comments

anon text forever;

[crouching_sin]

It's just a thought exercise. Don't get so worked up.

[conquersworlds]

And that exempts the asker from criticism for posing it in the first place?

[crouching_sin]

I'm not saying that it's something I would do. Do you hold your teachers accountable for every question that they pose students?

[conquersworlds]

...You know, my teachers are actually really bad examples for this, you might want to try using another rhetorical question to try to pointlessly assert yourself.

[crouching_sin]

... That bad, huh?

[conquersworlds]

Something like that.

I guess if you really want an answer to whatever went wrong with you today, it's obviously not morally permissible but that doesn't mean it's not an option. If a surgeon doesn't have consent to do it but is actually considering it anyway, I'm pretty sure morals are already so far off the table it's not even a point anymore.

[crouching_sin]

That's a fair point. And what if you were the surgeon? Still no?

[conquersworlds]

It...depends, I think.

[crouching_sin]

On?

[conquersworlds]

There's someone I really want to see dead. If he were our backpacker, I wouldn't think twice.

Lesser considerations are how much I care about the five people whose organs are failing, or if they're random.

[crouching_sin]

That's a fair point. I think there are a lot of people who would think that about me, for example.

[conquersworlds]

I'm pretty sure everyone thinks that about somebody.

[...Jinnai, I'm pretty sure they don't.]

[crouching_sin]

Whether they acknowledge it or not, yes. Probably.

[conquersworlds]

So. Are you going to share your thoughts on the matter or not?

[crouching_sin]

Personally? If we're assuming that the surgeon wouldn't get caught, then I'd say that while it's morally wrong according to most standards and certainly a breech of his oath, the surgeon wouldn't be wrong to do it if it were to save the lives of the other people.

More realistically though, it's unlikely to ever work, unless everything went perfectly. And there's definitely the risk that the organs would go bad by the time he got to the fifth patient anyway, since he's not likely to want other people around to help him. People talk, after all.

[conquersworlds]

How isn't that wrong, in your opinion? Because it spares five instead of one?

[crouching_sin]

Exactly. Isn't saving lives the job of a doctor?

[conquersworlds]

...Do you want to point out where murder fits into the job description as well or just try again? Your choice.

[crouching_sin]

Is letting people die without doing everything you can to help them better than murder?

[conquersworlds]

...I think the answer most people would give here is something like "Yes, because then you don't have a direct hand in the death."

[crouching_sin]

Most people are squeamish.

[conquersworlds]

Or they just have different priorities.

I don't think it really matters whether one is better or not, personally.

[crouching_sin]

To be honest, I don't really think it does, either. It's just something people tend to tell themselves to make themselves feel better about it.

[conquersworlds]

There's not much point in doing that, though - if people need to die then so be it.

[crouching_sin]

Most people don't seem to like thinking of it that way.