Question

Right, its an interesting question, and me and Scott were talking about it, so I thought I'd see what you guys thought.


Someone walked up to you and said, I have 20 people captive. I can kill each one of them, without any pain. You may or may not know these people. You will live

But also, I can take you, and torture you, then have you killed, but the 20 other people live and are fine.

Nothing will get you out of it, which would you pick?

kill them and let me go.

It's a hard choice really. Normally I wouldn't risk my body over people if I didn't know if I knew them or not. But 20 people are more than just 1, so then it comes to mind as you thinking of the second choice. (Being tortured and them being set free) But there are other ways around it. Things you could do to get them out of where there held hostage. It's a hard choice.

i'd genuinely let him kill & torture me.

I have no reason to save those people. If I needed to sacrifice myself to save a lot of people, such as in a terrorist attack, I would do so happily. 20 random people who I don't know, who are probably resigned to the fact they're going to die soon anyway? I'd save myself.

I'd rather die than live knowing I could of saved 20 people's lives.

Let them torture and kill me.

kill the other 20

In another thread like this I said I'd let them kill me, but I doubt I could deal with the added torture here. Also the fact the other people will definitely die a quick and painless death makes it sound better to me. It's suffering I worry about more than death, so I'd save myself.

I'd let them kill the other 20. Sounds selfish but it goes against human nature to let yourself be tortured and then killed when nobody else is going to actually suffer because of the decision.