The Trolley Problem Analysis

“Most think that, if one were to send missiles to destroy starving people in Africa, this would be wrong. On the other hand, merely sitting back and doing nothing while they starve to death is morally permissible.” (The Trolley Problem) What is morally right and wrong has been an argument for philosopher for centuries. In 1976, a woman named Judith Thomson, a moral philosopher and metaphysician from Columbia University, wrote the book “Killing, Letting Die, and The Trolley Problem”. Thomson wrote this book about a very controversial moral issue, the Trolley Problem. The Trolley Problem is a hypothetical problem in which a trolley is coming down the tracks with five people on them. The five people will die if the trolley hits them, conveniently you are standing right next to …show more content…
It starts the same, a trolley coming down tracks about to hit five people, the difference is that you know that something heavy will stop the trolley and there just so happens to be a large man standing next to you. You can push the man in front of the trolley and kill a man and save five people or not get involved and let five people die. Again, the moral problem here is that you will be killing one person or letting five people die. Another variation of the Trolley Problem is Organ Harvest, a doctor has five patients who need transplants to live. There is a healthy person that has all the needed organs, the doctor can either kill the healthy patient and get the organs to save five people or let the five people die and have the healthy man live. 90% of people say that in the original Trolley Problem you should kill the one person to let the five people live, but when presented the Fat Man problem 95% of people say that you should not push the man in front of the train to save the five people. (The Trolley Problem) In a utilitarian point of view is it morally right to kill the one person rather than let five people