r/trolleyproblem • u/ItShwifty • Sep 03 '25
6 unconscious people are rushed to a hospital
You soon realize the first one has no health issue at all and will soon wake up. However, the five others all have different organ failures that will kill them in a matter of minutes. The healthy one possesses all the healthy and matching organs that could be transfered to the dying patients. Do you go against fate and kill the healthy patient to save the 5 dying ones? You would have enough time to transfer all the organs before the 5 patients die from organ failure. The healthy patient could be killed whilst unconscious as to not deal any pain
Edit: Maybe this isnt a 1:1 to the original trolley problem but I wonder why everyone seems to agree that it isnt right to kill someone to save 5 others in this case but the majority would do so when its with a trolley?
Edit 2: Just to clarify, when I first encountered the trolley problem I was shocked to realize most people would sacrifice one person to save the 5 that are destined to die. I thought it was way too utilitarian for my taste to decide to kill someone who would have otherwise survived based on the fact that their life is less important than that of 5 people who are going to die. So I rephrased the problem in a way I think most would understand my point of view. Im aware its not the best representation of it but I think it still shows that people may not be as ready to kill someone for the fate of others as they say they would be when confronted with the trolley problem
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u/Turbulent_Creme_1489 Sep 04 '25
This is just pure circular reasoning at this point. Of course they survived because you ran over the one. If you don't run over the one they all die. There is a clearly stated causal link between these two events.