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?

[*Kathleen*]

Yeah, but he's going to die anyways...besides...I don't think it's a situation like that. You're willing to keep one person and kill [probably] more than ten to fifteen people? If this is the case, imagine if it were a larger amount of people...heck...are you willing to wipe out the whole human race at the expense of one person? I'm sure that person would rather die...I would. You're being selfish if you know you're going to die, but don't want to just yet...rather kill more people because of your selfishness. That's what I think of it.