[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

[text]- ANON 5EVER

[no_ufo_ending]

I don't think I need to be operating on anyone, I don't have a good track record with saving people.

[anon text buddies!]

[crouching_sin]

... It's a hypothetical question so we're assuming that you have enough of a skill level to do this.

[no_ufo_ending]

Oh.

No, I don't think it would be okay to chop up a random person and deal out his organs like Uno cards.

[crouching_sin]

[The fuck is Uno again - oh.]

Why not?

[no_ufo_ending]

It's not nice. Those organs don't belong to you.

_{[Here's our horror game protag concerned with being nice. Okay.]}

[crouching_sin]

They don't belong to you even in situations that aren't this one. It's not like you transplant your own organs.

[no_ufo_ending]

I don't think a patient who is a day away from dying of complications would have time to recover from a surgery that serious anyway. Everybody dies.

[crouching_sin]

... I suppose that's a fair way of looking at it, though somewhat missing the larger point.

[no_ufo_ending]

A question like this has a lot of parts to it.

What would you do?

[crouching_sin]

It does, though it's more of a question of utilitarianism. Sacrificing something for the greater 'good'.

In my position... provided it was possible to do and that I wouldn't lose my license or something like that, I wouldn't have any problems doing it.

[no_ufo_ending]

I'm still going to go with no. I wouldn't do it. My gut tells me it's wrong.

_{[HE'S HAD ENOUGH SACRIFICES TY.]}

[crouching_sin]

Humans have bad gut reactions to a lot of things that end up being the right thing to do.

[no_ufo_ending]

Disagree.

_{[Henry you can't just write the word DISAGREE in a debate.]}

[crouching_sin]

That's... that's not an argument.

[no_ufo_ending]

Disagree.

_{[Wow, this is much easier! Henry has a very small satisfied smile on the other end of the network.]}

[crouching_sin]

[Is he - he is.]

You're just making yourself look childish, you know.

[no_ufo_ending]

_{[HE SURE IS. And by now he's waved over a few other members of the household to watch his screen.]}

Disagree.

[crouching_sin]

That's all you can say, isn't it?