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The Trolley Problem Revisited: Moral Dilemmas in Everyday Life
As the complexities of the moral decision making persist the trolly problem is becoming the cornerstone of ethical thought experiments.
The scenario is simple: A trolley is heading towards five people tied to a track. You stand by a lever that can divert the trolley onto another track, where a single person is tied.
Do you pull the lever, sacrificing one life to save five?
As hard of a question this may seem however one thing for sure; it is not a theoretical dilemma. This scenario does indeed mirror the real world scenario where we as individuals or as a society must make decisions that weigh the greater good against individual harm. For example, consider the allotment of limited medical resources during a pandemic. Health experts may face a situation where they must decide which patients receive life-saving treatment when resources are scarce. This decision is comparable to the trolley problem — prioritizing the survival of many at the potential cost of a few.
The trolley problem also echoes discussions about self-driving cars. Programmers are now tasked with encoding ethical decisions into algorithms that will determine how an autonomous vehicle should behave in an accident scenario.
Should the car be programmed to prioritize the…
