The trolley problem

The trolley problem is set forth to inquire about peoples ethical values when it comes to the life and death of others. The trolley problem goes something like this; there is a runaway trolley careening down the track. In its path there are four men, unaware of the trolley, working on the track, if the trolley gets to them all will surly die. However on the track before the four workers is a switch that will divert the trolley on to another set of tracks where only one man works in its path. The question is; do you pull the switch or do you just let the trolley run its course? Which is better or less bad, one person to die or four people to die?  In the eyes of Mill the death of one person is the answer because it entails the overall good for more people, or limits the overall pain and suffering to just one person. For him it essentially is a numbers game. When people are asked what they would do in this situation they almost always say that they would pull the switch and cause only one person to die, however with a slight variation to the scenario the answer changes.

In the new scenario there is still a runaway trolley and four men in its path, however this time the one person on the other track is not just some random stranger but your own mother. Now what do you do? Do you pull the switch and kill your own mother or do you just let the trolley run its course? When presented with this scenario almost everyone would not pull the switch and save their own mother. So is it ethical for us to value our mother’s life over someone else’s? That random stranger in scenario one most likely has a family as well, so why is your loss more important than theirs? In Mill’s opinion it shouldn’t matter who the one person is on the other track, the right thing should still be to save four people and let only one die because it limits the overall pain and suffering to less people. However most people don’t have that same viewpoint and this is why ethics can be such a difficult question to answer.