i meant answerable correctly
How can there ever be a
correct answer to these hypothetical questions? It is true that we won't be able to make a definite choice prior to these events happening, but we can generally take a guess based upon our own characteristics.
As for me:
1: I'm not a parent so I wouldn't know, but when I asked some older adults this question, they all replied with a stern, "no." They said they'd rather die themselves than to kill their own child. Although I personally hate children, I suppose I wouldn't be able to smother my own.
2: Based upon my characteristics, I'd probably get on the lifeboat myself. I have a strong urge to live on, so I won't do something that could possibly cause my own death. Besides, if it was chaotic, I wouldn't even have noticed the mother and child anyway (I'd only have the idea of saving myself in my head.).
3: Um, why not try and save the dog and rush for an animal hospital? I don't even own a gun...But if I had to make a choice, I probably won't be able to do it; the thought of killing my own dog wouldn't even appear in my head.
4: I honestly think I'd hesitate for a moment, and then try to save my friend when it's too late. I'm more of a "think first, act later" kind of person, so I probably won't do anything on impulse like that.
I saw situations like these in an article in times, about how morality is what makes us different from an ape/monkey/animal. The first question was exactly like in the article. The second question (with the Titanic) was a bit different. The situation was that there was one lifeboat left, and it was freezing cold. There are a handful of people on your boat, but it's too heavy to support them all. The only way to survive was to push off a sick, frail man who obviously won't make the journey and survive in the cold.
The other situation dealt with a construction site. There is a speeding metal cart on its way towards a group of unsuspecting people. The only way to save them is for you to push/pull a lever near you to alter the track, killing another unsuspecting person (it's just one person) instead. Another scenario is the same as the first one, but you are standing on a bridge above and near the group of people. The only way to save them would be to push off the unsuspecting person next to you off the bridge so that he collides with the cart instead. And finally, what would you do in the same situation as above (the second) if, instead of pushing the person off the bridge, you had a lever that acted as a trapdoor and would drop the person towards the path of the cart?
Whew, that took awhile.