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Position:Home>Philosophy> HYPOTHETICAL: Would you sacrifice one of your children in order to save a thousaQuestion: HYPOTHETICAL: Would you sacrifice one of your children in order to save a thousand other children!? Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The idea of Abraham, common in several religions, puts an end to human sacrifice!. Obedience to a higher power was the question, and the higher power said that willingness was the test!. God said, "I will no longer require such a sacrifice", and yet in the Christian religion such a sacrifice was made of Yahweh's own off-spring!. There are two ways to go on your question, one is the absolutist position, best represented by Roman Catholicism!. Murder is always wrong, even if it is some primordial ooze!. Here certain kinds of war are still deemed just, but many important Catholic thinkers believe that modern times have eliminated the idea of any wars being just, primarily because civilians are always at risk!. The Berrigan brothers offer the clearest thinking here!. The other position is defined best by calling it situational ethics, the primary tenet being defined by providing the greatest good for the greatest number!. Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the best political examples of this reasoning, for which many find vast errors, not only in the thinking but in how the decision was made!. Your situation is not well enough defined to discuss very well!. What threatens the thousand children!? How will sacrificing your child save them!? Is there an authority demanding this, and what are the reasons!? Is that authority open to questions or do the reasons consist of such things as, your baby's skin is too brown, its head too big, or it's a girl!. Is there time to make alternative decisions and seek other solutions!? Perhaps King Solomon could cut them all in two!? The most common way I have seen this question posed is as follows!. A group of frontier families are hiding from the Indians in a well concealed cave!. An infant starts to squeal, imperiling the whole group!. Quickly, does one kill the baby!? There is no time for contemplation, and the squalling will send them all to their doom!. The common good philosophy makes the answer easy!. Pacifists are often called to task for an inability to answer the question of what one would do, if his family were being attacked!. This swerves from your question, but its fallacy is threefold!. The first is that unforseen instances of violence and self-defence are tantamount to war!. It again ignores all the circumstances, as if someone raping a person's mother would allow an unfettered witness!. In short, these questions lack the necessary specificity!. Finally, it contains the categorical imperative that all non-violence is, ipso facto, a form of lunacy!. Another wrinkle comes from the existential philosophers and artists, among whom there are supreme being believers and non-believers, Camus, Jaspers, Marcel, Sartre, Brecht, Tillich, Kierkegaard !. !. !. They would all agree that the outcome of choices can never be determined!. Kill the baby and the Indians may still find you!. They agree that the question is about how we approach the formulation of our ethics, which propel our choices!. With what you have said, however, why would your baby not be the next Mother Teresa, Einstein, or Mozart!? What if your baby's babies eventually teach us how to live in a world without war!? You can ask what would Mohammed do, or Jesus, or the Buddha!? I think they would grab your baby and run away to the highest mountain, sing a lullaby and smile!. I think you should do the same!. Psychologists call it fight or flight--no contest here!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Hypothetical or not, that's sick and would never happen to me!.Www@QuestionHome@Com nopeWww@QuestionHome@Com no!Www@QuestionHome@Com Only if I heard the Lord telling me to do so and then I almost doubt I would!.Www@QuestionHome@Com depends on value!. as in terms of the rest of society!. If the thousand were useless and extreamly problematic and one child could benifit more than a thousand!. As in terms of religion god sometimes has been qouted up to lifting one up only to destroy it later!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Are you a suicide bomber, or raising your kids to be Sick mind or sick questionWww@QuestionHome@Com Hypotheticals like this one are meaningless; it's the same as the idiot asking Mike Dukakis what he'd want to do if his wife were raped and murdered!. Let's focus on real conscious conduct, not on murderous hypotheticals intentionally constructed to discourage rationality!. To answer you directly: I would react to a situation and would try not to feel guilty afterward despite tragedy!. Split-second decisions can't be predicted!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Why do people assume they own "their" children!? You are here to guide and protect that soul and give it the benefit of your experience!. You do not own them and you do not get to make decisions like this!. I don't understand why people don't see their children as separate souls!. Yes, I have a child and I do not own her!. She may have to live by my rules for a while but I know that she is not something that i "own" to sacrifice as you ask!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It is not that much a situation to sacrifice my child based on someone's SUPERSTITION to save others!.Www@QuestionHome@Com honestly , no , cuz i think my genes are more special than yours!.Www@QuestionHome@Com No, I am responsible for the one whom I brought into this world!. I am not the one to make that decision for my offspring!. My wife would have given birth to my child, I will see others die before my own!. However, should my own blood make the decision himself/herself as a mature adult, I would stand by them on that!. But I would not make the decision on their lives!. Not while they are in my care, or have left the nest!.Www@QuestionHome@Com nope!.Www@QuestionHome@Com No!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Yes of course I would!. I dont have kids but when I do I will love them very much, but I could not sleep at night knowing that I had the chance to save thousands of kids but chose not to!. Besides, when my kids would find out, they would probably be very upset also!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |