Poll: One more moral dilemma . . .

[TheTurtleMan]

I've seen a couple of these type threads around lately and to the best of my knowledge this situation hasn't been done to death.

Ok, a secret organization has kidnapped you, your best friend, and someone you have never met before. They have put you and your friend ,who is tied up in a chair unconcious, opposite side of the room and the stranger in another room. There is no way for you to get to stranger but you can clearly see them through a bulletproof window between either room. The secret organization has given you a gun with one bullet and gave you two options. The first option is to take the gun and kill your bestist friend in the whole world in order to save you and the stranger. Or you can do nothing and you and the stranger will be killed while setting your friend free.

I was specific with some of the conditions because I don't want the answer have some kind of crazy loophole like shooting a guard and going rambo on the organization.

 

[BGH122]

I'd kill my best friend, twice as many thinking beings would be saved by killing my best friend.

However, the fun thing about this particular conundrum for a consequentialist is that the stranger is an unknown entity; I don't know if freeing him will lead to more deaths of thinking beings than if I had just chosen to spare my friend and kill both the stranger and myself. The stranger could be a murderer and in sparing him and myself I could have caused the deaths of many more people than just my friend, yet, presumably, my friend isn't a bad guy because I wouldn't befriend such a person and so sparing him will definitely not lead to additional deaths after the stranger and me.

Of course there's the deontological stand-point, that I have a duty to my friend, but I personally consider my duty to myself more important than any other.

 

[Miumaru]

What if I am my own best friend?

 

[Counter_Southpaw]

Why can't I kill myself? : D

 

[Judgement101]

Why can't I shoot the guy that hands me the gun? and if its just sitting in the room, why can't I shoot the lock off the door and save everyone?