[Avodah] pikuach nefesh

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jun 02, 2011 at 10:23:36AM +0300, Eli Turkel wrote:
: CI has a question: C an one divert a grenade to save many people but it will
: fall
: on a few. CI remains with a safek. R. Zilberstein in many shiurim seems to
: tend towards allowing it (it has many practical applications). I believe the
: Tzitz Eliezer does not allow based on the CI' safek

This is the "Trolley problem". Here is how Philippa Foot formulated it:
    A trolley is running out of control down a track. In its
    path are five people who have been tied to the track by a mad
    philosopher. Fortunately, you could flip a switch, which will lead
    the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there
    is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch
    or do nothing?

And to make it more difficult, Judith Jarvis Thomson posed the "Fat
Man problem" variant:
    As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You
    are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by
    dropping a heavy weight in front of it. As it happens, there is a
    very fat man next to you - your only way to stop the trolley is to
    push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save
    five. Should you proceed?

This variant, also by Thomson, I find trivial:
    A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in
    need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that
    organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any
    of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler,
    just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for
    a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor
    discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying
    patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear,
    no one would suspect the doctor.

And to make it a real nightmare, here is a real question asked of a rav
in the field (in Berut, IIRC) during Lebanon I, as I recall RARakeffetR
retelling it:

A few soldiers are sent into a building to check if it's safe before
the main body of troops takes it over. They make it to the roof, declare
it safe, and dozens of other boys enter the building. The building is
then blown up, burying them all.

May you bulldoze away the few bodies at the top of the mound, certainly
killing or hastening the death of one, so as to reach the far greater
number of soldiers further down as rapidly as possible? It would give
you the greatest chance of saving the most lives. But the bulldozer
operator would be actively killing.

May the Almighty spare me such decisions.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 44th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        6 weeks and 2 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Gevurah sheb'Malchus: What type of justice
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            does unity demand?