[Avodah] Murder a Chok or Logically Compelling

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Aug 06, 2024 at 10:44:18AM +1000, Rabbi Meir G. Rabi via Avodah wrote:
> Where this illustration is offered
> people stranded on a boat, where rescue is most unlikely. All will die of
> starvation unless they kill one (or one volunteers - would it be a Mitzvah
> for this person to kill themselves?) and the others will survive by
> consuming this person's flesh.

> Logic concludes that since they're anyway going to die, they ought to
> choose life by randomly choosing one to kill.
> Torah however rules that this is prohibited as murder, a gezeirat ha'katuv.

You're thinking like a Consequentialist, that ethical decisions are based
on which gives the most ethical outcome.

But the famous / infamous Troley Problem and its variants are all about
showing the limitations of Consequentialism.

What I think is a more obvious example: A surgeon has 5 patients who
will die if they don't get transplants. Should she go out in the street
and kill an innocent healthy person for their organs to save 5? I mean,
net-net, the world would be ahead 4 lives!

The Torah more deontological, where morality is based on whether or not
rules followed.

So far, I thought of two ways to think about the gemara about a whole
group dying rather than turning in one of the group (unless he is
chayav misah, like Sheva ben Bikhri).

The compring infinities approach:
If human life or happiness are of infinite value, then 5 people aren't
more valuable than one. It's infinity either way.

Or the Bitachon approach:
All human beings can do is act. It's up to HQBH how things turn out. So,
morality depends on the choice of action. As outcome is never entirely
one's choice.

But as someone who wants more Tenu'as haMussar in the world, I would
argue that the Torah has a Virtue Ethic. The moral choice is one that
is consistent with expressing and reinforcing the right virtues (Middos).
Which would also get you to a more Deontological approach.

...
> Are cojoined babies with two heads one or two lives?

Menachos 37a:
    Pelimo asked Rabbi: "If a person has two heads, on which should he
    place his tefillin?"

    He said to him: "Either get up and go to exile, or accept upon
    yourself excommunication."

    In the meantime, a man came by and said: "A child was born to me
    with two heads. How much do I have to pay to the kohen [ie one pidyon
    haben or two]?"

Tosafos (ad loc, "o qum gali") quotes a Medrash Rabba, in which Ashmodai
presents Shelomo haMelekh with a man with two heads. He marries, and
some of the couple's children have one had, and some two. Shelomo gets
the case when the man died, There was a fight over the yerushah where
the two headed sons wanted the inheritance to be divided by head, giving
them two portions each. Shelomo blindfolds one head and put hot water on
the other. If both heads felt the pain, they were counted as one person.

Whether or not that answers your question depends on whether you assume
midrashim necessarily conform to halakhah. An aggadita vs halakhah thing.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Between stimulus & response, there is a space.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   In that space is our power to choose our
Author: Widen Your Tent      response. In our response lies our growth
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    and our freedom. - Victor Frankl, (MSfM)