The value of life Options

[tkproduce]

A lot of debates seemed to be based on this, so I thought I might make a new topic out of it.

Obviously, life is a valuable thing. But how valuable is it to you? Different people have different opinions.

Say this kid at a school has somehow managed to pick up a fatal disease - maybe something like ebola, but worse. If he is not killed in the next 10 minutes, the disease is contagious enough to infect everyone in the school. You're a doctor with a needle in your hand and you are given the responsibility of making the decision of whether or not to kill this kid. What would you do?

Okay, a very unrealistic situation, but it is slightly similar to other situations. Like the war in Iraq. Do you think the lives of some are worth sacrificing for the welfare of others? The debate about abortion. Letting every foetus with a potential for life to live on, wanted or unwanted, may seem ideal to you, but looking at the big picture, I can see overpopulation and poverty.

So how much do you value individual life?

[nesquik]

If this was a real situation, a trained doctor would not kill anyone simply because of legal issues. The thing is 10 minutes in an emergancy is a long time, the kid would be immediately quarantined especially if the doctor could diagnose the disease on the spot.

As far as the developing human fetus. I personally would not consider it murder until the fetus was self aware or in another words, almost fully developed if not fully developed.