Journal #4

Train spur question 

The next article talks about the spur problem. An out of control trolley or train is headed for five people on a track, you as a bystander have the chance to flip a switch that would put the trail onto a spur. But there is a man stuck on conversation the spur track and by flipping the switch you would be killing him. I have actually had this before with my friend who believes in fate and her answer is not to pull the switch. She believes that if those five people were meant to die that day without her help then who is she to interfere and  kill someone else who wasn't supposed to die. Personally I think that leaves too many questions and loose ends, there are too many factors that go into fate that you can almost never be sure. What if you are the cause of the trolley? How do you know the reason you're even there isn't to pull the switch and save those five people? I don't really have an answer to the question, but instead more questions. Do I know them? How long have they been there? Is the man stuck on the spur sick? How did they all get here? I wouldn't be able to decide not knowing these things, I wouldn't be able to leave so many open questions. For all we know the five people could all be murderers and they were trying to kill the man on the spur before you came. The idea of killing someone blindly isn't the way I think. I always need to know the situation in these types of questions. Like what are you (the bystander) doing at the train tracks anyway? The outcome of this question doesn't really matter because in each one you put yourself at risk by choosing to kill someone. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/ethics-trolley-problem#.Uo3jJYW-S-s