There's no murder involved - it's simply minimizing the damage that will occur in the circumstances. It's kill three, or kill one. Not kill three, or murder one. — CasKev
"How do the solutions where you actually change tracks deal with the scenario of the fat man? The scenario where you can throw a fat man off the bridge to stop the trolley hitting five workers." — Purple Pond
Especially when it comes to warfare, real world "ethics" are totally different starting from laws and jurisdiction of a nation, the international laws on war and ending with military doctrine, strategy an objectives of an armed forces. After all, in many wars even today civilians are deliberate targets themselves. The legal and social maze that humanity has built especially around conflict between nation states shouldn't be underestimated.I think a real-life example of the trolley problem would be the general who has to decide whether or not to launch a strike against an enemy that would entail civilian casualties. Is it better to not get involved or to intentionally kill a few to save many? — Michael
whether or not you saved three lives in the process — David Solman
And let's not forget that the workers likely understand the dangers of their work on actively used tracks. — ssu
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