Law and Morality. Speaks of the dilemma of making a decision that someone must die in order for the others to survive. Explains and justifies the decision by using legal tools such as Law and Moralit

Essay by bk226University, Bachelor'sB, February 1997

download word file, 8 pages 4.6

Downloaded 174 times

It is not an everyday occurrence that someone must decide the fate of another's life. The dilemma of making a decision that someone must die in order for the others to survive, can obviously be troubling. The process in which the termination of one's life may be easy to make, but to justify that decision is the most difficult one. This paper is given a situation in which a decision of taking one's life is essential. The situation is that a nuclear war has occurred, which has destroyed most of the centres of civilization. There are five people that are that have escaped death by finding their way to a nuclear bunker. These five people consist of a pregnant woman; an old man, who is a retired judge; two teenagers - a fourteen-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old girl; and a young and healthy woman who is a doctor. They all have been there for fifteen days and they must remain there for an additional fifteen days before they can be rescued.

The problem is that although there are five of them in the bunker, there is only enough food for four people to survive for the remaining fifteen days. Rationing the food will not be of any use, because all will die with such a plan. The only way for most of the survivors to live for the next fifteen days is for one to die. Somehow they have contacted an outside source to advise them on the questions of 'Who shall die?', and 'How should the decision of choosing the person be carried out?' These are all very difficult questions to answer, but something must be done. It is unlikely that someone will voluntarily allow someone to kill them so that the others may live, that is why another...