Normative System of Ethics

Alright, enough waiting, I'll give you a quick rundown of...well...my view. Like I said, there are many out there. And no, I don't mean this is my view and my view alone...it's a pretty common one.

The key word here is intention. What did you intend to do? Aro, I was REALLY impressed with your logical train of thought. That's almost exactly how most people go through it but they don't take it as far as you did. The point is that someone has to die either way. If you switch the track, 1 dies. If you don't switch the track, 5 die. But not switched the track does not remove you from the situation. Not acting is itself acting. If a baseball if flying at my head and I choose not to duck...I am choosing to get hit in the head. So lack of action gets you nowhere.

If you switch the track to kill the 1, you are saving the 5, but you are not intending to kill the 1. It is an unfortunate course of events that you have no control over. In a case like this, though it sounds cold, it actually becomes just numbers. Don't confuse this with utilitarianism...it is anything but.

As another example (everyone is surely groaning) that you don't have to respond to if you don't want, but it makes the whole thing a lot clearer, here is Room 306:

You are a doctor and you have 5 patients who are all dying due to massive failure of major organs. Each one has a different organ failing. They will all die by the end of the week unless they get a transplant, and they are all so far down the transplant list that there is no hope. Nothing else can save them...not life support, not black market organs, nothing. Jim walks in to get a routine checkup and he is completely healthy. You realize, though, that if you were to drug Jim and take his organs, you could save all 5 of your patients lives. Jim would die, obviously, since he would be lacking such necessities as a heart and lungs. You know that you can do this and get away with it and nobody would know.

What do you do? Take Jim's organs and save the 5, or not take his organs and let the 5 die?

For our advanced readers, let's throw in this twist...Jim is a homeless drug addict. His addiction hasn't ruined any of his organs, but he is hopelessly destined to walk the streets with no family, no friends, no money, no chance of a job, and in perpetual anguish.

GO!