Would you kill one to save thousands?

[xxll_martin_llxx]

I saw this on a gaming forum and I thought this would be something interesting to have a chat about on here.

You have to look at it from all kinds of angles.

There is of course, if there's one bad guy, and 1000 good, would you?
That one person was family or a close friend?

What would you do?

 

[alz4445]

Well, it all depends on really who the one person was, you wouldn't exactly want to get rid of a close friend or relative, even if it was to save 1,000.

 

[Twinkie]

I probably would, but it also greatly depends. It is hard to tell which is doing the right thing :/

 

[Smith6612]

This is quite a difficult thing to answer. As everyone else is stating, it app depends on who is doing the killing. Sure, if it was some random guy and you saved thousands, maybe millions of lives by killing him, I guess it could be assuring even though you'll probably be jailed for it.

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

Well, if it were a person who had killed really many. Like traveling back in time and killing Hitler.
I amy have tried stopping it in some way.
http://www.ask500people.com/questio...-in-time-i-would-take-the-life-of-baby-hitler

 

[Macaws]

Yeah, but things like that cause things. Like you or I might not have been born, things wouldn't have been invented, so many things different.

 

[Twinkie]

It is cruel to thinks this way, but many medical and other scientific advances have been made by the enslaved. If someone did kill Hitler, the future would be so very different. I am not sure what I would do, but in Saddam Hussein's and Joseph Stalin's case, I probably would try to make sure the circumstances stop them from ever being born (divorce), without actually killing them.

 

[hcse26]

Well, if it were a person who had killed really many. Like traveling back in time and killing Hitler.
I amy have tried stopping it in some way.
http://www.ask500people.com/questio...-in-time-i-would-take-the-life-of-baby-hitler

killing hitler if going back in time is possible? that would scrutinize history. I'll just leave him alone if I could time-travel. Even though he did the things he did, it's already history. Let's just leave it the way it is.

 

[Zdroyd]

killing hitler if going back in time is possible? that would scrutinize history. I'll just leave him alone if I could time-travel. Even though he did the things he did, it's already history. Let's just leave it the way it is.

Yes and we learn lessons from failures like that... Even extremely bad things have good effects on the whole species...

 

[kundamor]

why not to make one good with our good attitutes to save thousands+1;

 

[exitnow]

I would. If it was a fact that by killing that person would save all of the others. Just turn it around, saving that one and you kill 1000.

I would probably kill 1000 to save 1 too so i could kill that one later (in a game anyway)

 

[cased]

It depends on the answer to how killing this one person would save 1000 people. It also depends on if it would be in cold blood or not. I would kill someone who was directly threatening several lives, but I would not kill someone in cold blood who was not directly to blame for the threat to those 1000 lives. For example I would kill a terrorist about to press the button that would blow a bomb in a heavily populated area, but if a terrorist said I had to kill some innocent civilian or he'd kill 1000 people, then I would not kill the innocent civilian.

In the later case, there is more at stake than the lives of the people involved. There is our sense of morality, justice, and our very freedom. Giving into a terrorist would destroy all of that.

 

[Mongoose92]

Definitely. A lot of people may disagree with me here, but I think someone like Saddam Hussein, or more recently Mugabe, both of which cause(d) deaths and mistreatment of thousands of people, should be assassinated, or even if it is someone who is about to go into a mall and shoot 20 people, I would kill him also.

 

[pvroom]

Definitely. A lot of people may disagree with me here, but I think someone like Saddam Hussein, or more recently Mugabe, both of which cause(d) deaths and mistreatment of thousands of people, should be assassinated, or even if it is someone who is about to go into a mall and shoot 20 people, I would kill him also.

Yes, but you have taken the "one" to be a very nasty character, what if he was not?

 

[Coldfirezz]

Who is it our place to choose who lives and who dies? I don't like playing God but if I had to kill one to save a thousand I would kill one.

- Have fun everyone! Keep debating...

 

[callumacrae]

It would depend who the thousand were and who the one was.

If the one was a bad guy and the thousand were good guys, then yes. otherwise, I wouldn't know.

 

[farscapeone]

Yes. I would kill anybody for a good enough reason.

Here's a real dilemma. Would you kill a child to save thousands (if there's no other way)?

I wouldn't.

 

[Killjoy116]

If i really was in that situation and the 1 person i had to kill was someone really close to me.. I'd kill myself and save everyone..

 

[tttony]

Well, it all depends on really who the one person was, you wouldn't exactly want to get rid of a close friend or relative, even if it was to save 1,000.

yes, I think same..

 

[Mongoose92]

Yes, but you have taken the "one" to be a very nasty character, what if he was not?

It should be irrelevant who the person is. If killing that 1 person saves more then we should all be willing to do it. At the same time, if killing that person saves more, but say he/she is a world leader and it would lead to a country in dissarray and potentially more deaths, then the situation is reversed, would you kill 100 to save a nation?