Trolley and Transplant Cases

PHL 2560: Business Ethics and Decision Making

The Trolley and Transplant Cases

It is morally permissible for Edward to turn the trolley. He will save the lives of five people although the person at the right hand track will die. No matter what Edward does, unintentional lives will be lost. That is why turning the trolley remains the best possible option to him given the fact that it will result to less adverse repercussions as killing one. In this case, Edward, must select the option that is least destructive.

For the second case, it is morally impermissible for Kathy to push the fat man in order to save the lives of others. Murder is impermissible and therefore Kathy will be committing intentional murder by pushing the fat man over the bridge. Given her viewpoint , Kathy can call out to all six to jump off the tracks and avoid death altogether. If that is not possible, she can look for a non living object to throw over the bridge in an attempt to stop the trolley.

It is morally impermissible for David to harvest the organs of the healthy patient in his quest to save the lives of the unhealthy patients. Like in the case above, David would be committing murder which is not acceptable. Murdering one person is worse than letting five die and murder is not morally acceptable.

The cases are all similar in that they deal with human action and results to life and death. The cases are different in that in the first case, Edward could do nothing to avoid the loss of life and did not intentionally set out to kill anyone. Kathy and David would have intentionally murdered an individual to save others and murder is morally wrong. Edward did not intend to kill any innocent where Kathy and David would have intended to do so.

Word Count: 300