[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;

[crouching_sin]

[Sorry, but he's not going to be baited into a video response just yet, Rossiu.]

In a place where people can die, then.

audio forever

[adai]

[...he's actually not trying to bait, he's just not very good at texting...]

It shouldn't be left to one person. It's not fair to let someone play god with all their lives. It's especially not fair to consult the people who could die either way.

anon text forever;

[crouching_sin]

So your answer is no, I'm guessing?

[adai]

Of course. I would never do something like that.

[...this sort of thing happened in his village for years, so he's still very worked up over it.]

Granted, I couldn't be in that specific position to begin with. I don't know anything about medicine, much less surgery.

[And naturally he gets caught up on that.]

[crouching_sin]

... It's a hypothetical situation. I would be surprised if you did know something about medicine or surgery.

[adai]

...I don't think I know anyone who knows how to perform surgery...

[THAT MIGHT BE A BAD THING SINCE THEY'RE FIGHTING A WAR, UM]

Why did you pose this question in the first place?

[He doesn't sound accusatory any more, at least?]

[crouching_sin]

Curiosity. The way that people respond to philosophical thought experiments can tell you a lot about them.

[adai]

...I suppose I see the merit in that. It would at least give you something to think about. Have you gotten any interesting answers so far?

[crouching_sin]

Most are the expected answers, so far.

[adai]

They're mostly answers like mine, aren't they?

[crouching_sin]

Something like that, yes.

[adai]

I'm glad to hear that.

[...]

While I don't appreciate your question, I do understand why you'd be curious about it. Thank you for clarifying that for me.

[crouching_sin]

You're welcome. That's a surprisingly civil answer, based on what I've seen so far.

[adai]

I'm sorry for being short with you before. I knew a person who was in a position of power who did something... sort of similar. It's something I never want to see happen again, so this sort of topic is important to me.

[crouching_sin]

I see. No, it was just a hypothetical. Nothing that I've seen happen.

[adai]

Good. It's not a pleasant experience at all.

Thanks for talking with me though.

[crouching_sin]

You're quite welcome.