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Matters of Life and Death
I read an interesting article over at BBC Online today that asks you make moral choices based on various thought experiments such as:
"One day, you wake up in hospital. In the nearby bed lies a world famous violinist who is connected to you with various tubes and machines. To your horror, you discover that you have been kidnapped by the Music Appreciation Society. Aware of the maestro's impending death, they hooked you up to the violinist. If you stay in the hospital bed, connected to the violinist, he will be totally cured in nine months. You are unlikely to suffer harm. No one else can save him. Do you have an obligation to stay connected?"
Accordint ot the creator of the test, the expected and reasonable answer would be no, you have no obligation to remain connected. A generous person might agree to the proposal, but it would not be wrong to disconnect and walk away. Interestingly the article goes on to discuss this example as a way of viewing abortion in the face of an unplanned pregnancy.
You can read this thought experiment and more over at BBC Online.
This entry was posted on May 2nd, 2006 at 14:19 by Harry and is filed under Science & Nature.
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