Poll: Would You Push The Button? (Moral Dilemma)

DrOswald

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Apr 22, 2011
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RJ 17 said:
This is a classic moral decision question that I felt like posing since I've little better to do at the moment, so here we go.

You're at a carnival and something draws your attention to a small tent on the outskirts of the carnival ground. Walking inside, you see a figure sitting at a small table clad in a black cloak. Sitting on the table is a box with a red button on it. The figure explains that if you press the button, you'll become 1,000,000 dollars richer, however someone in your immediate family (father, mother, brother, or sister) will die immediately.

The question is simple: would you press the button? Explain your answer. If your answer is no, what - if any - amount would tempt you to press it?
First of all, no I would not. And I don't think there is any amount I would press it for.

I do think it is worth pointing out that this is not a moral dilemma. The moral choice is clear - do not press the button. The only question here is how much of a bastard you are willing to be for personal gain. Not that it is not an interesting question, it just isn't a moral dilemma.
 

Akytalusia

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i wouldn't. i don't care one way or the other about members of my immediate blood vicinity, but fortunately for them, i don't care one way or the other about money either. i'd just wish the guy luck with his next patron and proceed to the carnival.
 

DkLnBr

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essentially, would I kill a family member for the life insurance? nope, not even if I wouldn't get charged with murder. Power of family and love and all that shit
 

Vegosiux

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Now, if said family member was suffering from an agonizing terminal illness with no prospect of improvement, yes. Otherwise, eh, no.
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
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DrOswald said:
I do think it is worth pointing out that this is not a moral dilemma. The moral choice is clear - do not press the button. The only question here is how much of a bastard you are willing to be for personal gain. Not that it is not an interesting question, it just isn't a moral dilemma.
Actually it is a moral dilemma...seeing as how judging someone to see "how much of a bastard they are willing to be for personal gain" is a test of their morals. Are you someone (family or no) who would kill for nothing but your own personal gain? If so, then you likely don't have strong morals since you're clearly a selfish bastard willing to do anything so long as you benefit from it.

You can argue it's not a very tempting one since, as other people have pointed out, a million really isn't that much. But I'd argue that the less the money, the worse your morals if you agree to it.
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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I have make more than enough money to live perfectly comfortably from a job I mostly enjoy, so I wouldn't even feel tempted by that.

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I don't understand the greed that motivates questions like this. Anything above a comfortable living wage, where you can afford the essentials and have enough left over to entertain yourself until the next check, is completely pointless and irrelevant. I don't get why people want more than that.
 

Gone Rampant

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I'd ask a few questions first.

Could I choose which of my family?

Is extended family allowed?

If one of my extended family is in hospital with a terminal condition, could they die and spare them (Essentially mercy kill).

But to be honest? I love my family. I'd turn around and walk away over killing them.
 

thehorror2

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If it was the traditional morality question (where it was a randomly-selected person anywhere in the world other than you.) I'd go for it, no questions asked. Enough to live off of forever, maybe not; but 1 million dollars would make a lot of my short-to-middle term problems disappear. No student loans, no credit card debts, my whole family basically gets to hit a big reset button on their financial problems. Weigh that against one person in the world dying and you'd better believe I'd take it. There are a decent number of scumbags in the world, so I could even hope to off one of them. The balance of extraordinarily people in the world is shifted towards extraordinarily bad, so I've got better than even odds of taking out someone who at least sort-of deserves it. But when it's a member of my own family, no way. I know all of my family members well enough to know that the world would be hurt by their absence much more than any amount of money could fix. (I can't vouch for everyone else in the world that way.)
 

Daverson

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Why would I press the button when I can simply... pick... up... the... phone? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdqAbnGs-fw]
 

Saika Renegade

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As someone whose immediate family is full of bad people, including a controlling and philandering father with rage issues, a histrionic homophobic fundamentalist racist mother, and an amoral sociopath for a brother, I probably couldn't mash that button fast enough. What good they do seems to be outweighed by the ills they've caused. I'm probably not any good either, but even stepping back to look at myself from an outside perspective, I can't see my bad side being as bad as my mother's declaration that African Americans shouldn't be offended by racial slurs. It doesn't help that my parents' friends are just as bad, and I suspect my brother has no friends, really. Given his apathy towards others, that's not exactly surprising...

I'd do it, not for any profit, but because I can't shake the feeling my family is causing more social harm than good.
 

DrOswald

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RJ 17 said:
DrOswald said:
I do think it is worth pointing out that this is not a moral dilemma. The moral choice is clear - do not press the button. The only question here is how much of a bastard you are willing to be for personal gain. Not that it is not an interesting question, it just isn't a moral dilemma.
Actually it is a moral dilemma...seeing as how judging someone to see "how much of a bastard they are willing to be for personal gain" is a test of their morals. Are you someone (family or no) who would kill for nothing but your own personal gain? If so, then you likely don't have strong morals since you're clearly a selfish bastard willing to do anything so long as you benefit from it.

You can argue it's not a very tempting one since, as other people have pointed out, a million really isn't that much. But I'd argue that the less the money, the worse your morals if you agree to it.
Well, no, because the key feature of a moral dilemma is the dilemma. This is a moral test, not a moral dilemma. A test is not the same as a dilemma.

A dilemma is not simply choosing one of two options, even if those options are hard to choose between. A dilemma is about being forced to make a difficult judgement call. A moral dilemma then is when that judgement is moral in nature. You judge the morality of the situation, not at what point you would be willing to abandon morality for personal gain.

In this situation there is no moral judgement to be made, or at least not a difficult one. The morality of the situation is obvious. And for that reason this is a moral test, not a moral dilemma.
 

Dinosorcerer

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I'll press it, I'll press it nine times. actually, probably not. like most of the people on this forum, I'd probably only do it if I could target one specific person to die. I'm not going to pretend there aren't people in my family I'd happily kill, but the risk is too great
 

coliverse

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Nov 8, 2013
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See, I would have to be some sort of socio-path in order to press the button. And however much I may hate my brother of dad, I would never press the button. Unless it's like a million and one.
 

Smiley Face

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Jan 17, 2012
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Nope. I love my large, extended family, and generally speaking, I'm fairly content with my financial situation. I mean, if I really wanted something for which I needed money, I guess I'd have to get a better job and put in more hours, but I can't think of something like that that I'd place over the life of someone else.
 

Fairy Fatale

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I'd need some assurances. Will there be any consequences to me beyond the knowledge that I just killed someone? Can I choose someone specific instead of doing it randomly? Will my influx of wealth be properly laundered and explained with something other than "I killed a guy with a button?"