Thread: Moral Dilemma Explained By Evolutionary Biology. You Agree?

I don’t remember the exact details of the “YouTube” story, but someone proposed this dilemma:

You are in the side of a road and suddenly you see a old woman, age 50, and two children, age 5 and 10, caught in the middle of the road of intensive traffic and you realize that they are about to be killed. You have time to save just one of them. Who would you choose and why ?

A lot of people answered that they would choose to save one of the children but they were incapable to explain why.

Then a poster called “MysteriousMaskMan” posted a video explaining why most people would choose to save one of the children instead the old woman. He based his explanation on EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY.

Watch his video and tell us if you agree with his explanation or not. You can also register in the YouTube and answer there as well.

Here is the video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DIh2-qmiYJE

What happens if you dislike children and are particularly bored that day? Does watching all three get pasted count as a reaction?

I think the poster of the dilemma is more likely to be pasted considering that they consider 50 to be old. I can see people raging about that up and down the country and indeed the world...

I think it would very much depend on if the woman is still capable of having children - if she is then she could have 2 children within the next couple of years which would mean that you have saved 3 people. As the 'grown-up' she is also likely to have more people who are dependant on her i.e if she works as a doctor then specific people may depend on her for survival. Children are unlikely to have this dependancy.
You could however argue that the children have a longer time to produce children and make a difference to the world. However, what if they were both devoted catholics who were planning to enter a monastery/convent? What if they were both infertile? What if the difference to the world is actually negative? At least with the woman you are more likely to know if she is making a positive or negative contribution to society.

My answer - the question is too inspecific.

The Joker thought he could pull something like this on Batman. The Riddler trapped Batman in a room with Nicole Kidman (the reporter), and Robin both trapped in glass ready to fall to their deep doom. The Riddler said Batman had two choices and that there wasnt enough time to save them both. What did Batman do? He jumped the gun, and shot his bathooks out and just then the Riddler pulled the lever to drop Robin and Nicole Kidman but Batman jumped down the ledge to where they falling, rescued Nicole first then shot his bathooks down to Robin which swung over a pipe pulling batman and Robin to safety. Both were saved and the Joker and the Riddler were busy dealing with running away, and their little creation falling to pices because of Batman's weapons.

so, in true Batman style what i would do is jump out in the road grabbing both kids with each hand and telling the woman to duck on the pavement so the semi can roar over her, and i can land safely with the two kids on the other side of the road. Bam!