Deck 54: The Trolley Problem Judith Jarvis Thomson

Question 1

The trolley problem is a

A) real case taken from history.
B) problem that might arise in real life.
C) hypothetical moral problem.
D) story ripped from the headlines.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The point of the trolley problem is

A) to make us think about what principles underlie our moral judgments.
B) to entertain us and pass the time.
C) to make us think about transportation safety.
D) to make us more moral people.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The cases involving a trolley and a surgeon are philosophically interesting because they

A) seem essentially similar, but deliver different intuitive verdicts.
B) reveal consistency in our moral judgments.
C) demonstrate that Europeans and Americans have similar views about morality.
D) seem essentially different, but deliver the same intuitive verdicts.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In the trolley case, the driver must choose between

A) killing five people or letting one die.
B) killing five or killing one.
C) killing one or letting five die.
D) letting either five or one die.

Question 5

Thomson reports that when she asks people about the trolley case, most people feel that

A) the driver should not turn the trolley.
B) it is permissible to turn the trolley.
C) they have no idea what the driver should do.
D) it is morally wrong to turn the trolley.

Question 6

Which of these might be a reason not to turn the trolley?

A) The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.
B) Turning the trolley is making an active choice to kill the one person, which might be considered worse than merely passively allowing the deaths of the five people.
C) The driver of the trolley has a special duty to protect passengers as well as workers on the trolley lines.
D) Saving five lives is the better choice, even at the cost of one person's death.

Question 7

Which of these might be a reason to turn the trolley?

A) The trolley driver has a special duty to keep workers safe.
B) Making an active choice to kill is morally worse than passively allowing deaths.
C) Each person's life is equally sacred and valuable.
D) Saving five lives is the better choice, even at the cost of one person's death.

Question 8

The surgeon case is similar to the trolley case, because both cases are about a choice to

A) save a life by any means necessary.
B) take a life, supposedly "for good reasons."
C) actively take a life versus passively allow people to die.
D) take one life to allow five people to live.

Question 9

Thomson's "Fat Man" example differs from the first trolley scenario in

A) requiring one to lay hands on someone in order to sacrifice them to save a greater number of lives.
B) the number of lives at stake.
C) offering no option of refusal to intervene.
D) being unrealistic.

Question 10

Most people that Thomson talks to about the surgeon case feel that

A) the surgeon may kill the healthy patient, if it would save five lives.
B) the surgeon may not kill the healthy patient, even to save five lives.
C) the surgeon must kill the healthy patient, because it would save five lives.
D) all of the surgeon's options are very unfortunate.

Question 11

In the trolley scenario, the driver must decide whether to kill one or five people.

Question 12

Thomson uses the trolley problem and the surgeon problem to explore the principles behind our moral beliefs.

Question 13

In the "Fat Man" version of the trolley problem, fewer lives are at stake than in the original version, though the emotional dimensions of the problem differ.

Question 14

The trolley driver may choose to act so that only one person dies, instead of five people.

Question 15

In the surgeon case, the doctor has the option of harvesting valuable organs from a patient who will die anyway.

Question 16

According to Thomson, most people have the same response to the trolley story and the surgeon story: in each case, one life should be sacrificed to save five lives.

Question 17

Although both stories are about sacrificing one life to save five, most people have different feelings about the trolley case and the surgeon caseظ

Question 18

The belief that the driver should turn the trolley to run over one person and save five supports a moral principle of sacrificing one person to save a greater number of lives.

Question 19

According to Thomson, most people think the surgeon should be allowed to sacrifice a healthy patient if it was 100% guaranteed that he would be able to save the lives of five other people with the organ transplants.

Question 20

Thomson tells the surgeon story to show that, in principle, it may be permissible to kill one healthy person to save five.

Question 21

Do you think it is morally acceptable to turn the trolley and save five lives while one dies? If you answer no, why not? If you answer yes, do you think it is acceptable for the surgeon to kill one to save five?

Question 22

Does it matter that the driver has to take action to turn the trolley and actively choose to kill the one worker on the alternative track? If the driver allows the trolley to go straight, the five workers are killed because of the driver's passive inaction, not because of the driver's active choice to kill. Or does this make no difference? Would it make a moral difference if the driver refused to choose, perhaps by jumping out of the trolley before it struck the workers?

Question 23

What is your opinion of the surgeon case? May the surgeon kill one patient to save five lives? Why? What is the basis for your opinion? What reasons might someone have for holding the opposite opinion?

Question 24

Thomson does not believe that the cases she describes are likely to arise. Why then does she discuss them? Of what value are such imaginary cases?

Question 25

Consider your response to the trolley problem. Would you change tracks? Now consider that it is not one worker who would die but a loved one. Would that change your response? And if it does change your response, do you think this is justified?