Would you be a friend's rescuer or killer?

[Shirin_Jai]

Interesting thing came up over the day. I was thinking about this mountain climbing story in which these two best friends were stuck in terrible snowstorm on a rather dangerous mountain (don't know if it was K2 or anything) and one of the two apparently had a broken leg. So, the guy who was mobile (aka does not have broken leg) went and pulled and dragged his friend along. But somehow they both ended up sliding backward into a crevasse and dangling just by one rope.

Neither the guy most able to get them out, simply couldn't. And so the dilemma was this: he had to either cut the rope and let his friend die to survive or they both die. In the end, this guy chose to cut the rope. Of course his friend plummeted some 30 or more feet into the crevasse, but miracuously survived and managed to get out somehow, whilst his friend climbed out and went back to base camp.

My question would be this: Given this situation or something similar, would you willing cut the rope? Or would you rather to continue to hang?

[Adopis]

Uh the friend being ill is not a similar situation at all, since you yourself are not in any life threatening situation as with the dangling rope.

That's completely different.

[Dior Trash]

Cut the rope or dangle?


I say dangle. If the friend actually is meaningful to your life, you can't let them die. A best friends' motto: "If 1 goes down, we both go down."

[minion002]

not in that type of situation....but if a friend was like kidnapped of something id rick my life to save them

[Halii]

I'd cut the rope. Above me, that is.

When I read this, I automatically thought of my best friend with a broken leg, and dangling above an icey crevasse. I know, when I go, I will go with honor.

I wouldn't be able to live if I ever did that.

Now, if it was Michael Jackson on the other hand...

[Lord_Cthulhu]

It's simple logistics really. If both of you are gonna dies if one of you doesn't, and your survival IS the most important thing to you, then cut thje ******** rope and watch him go splat!

[Nea88]

I'm not sure, I think it would depend on who that friend was. Because if I knew that they would go to hell if I didn't do something I would send them to someone who would save them spiritually and then my main concern would be getting them to safety. Other than that I would be liable to jump in front of most bullets.

[Delaquir]

i'd dangle even to the death. if my friend and i were alone like that i'd already trust him or her enough.

[Eekan]

I would have to spend a bit of time thinking, and then we'd probably fall and die.

But what I'd probably do is tell my friend about the situation, and ask him if I should cut the rope, explaining to him that if I don't, we both die. If he says yes, I'll do it, but definately hesitant of doing so. If he says no, we both die, right before I speak to him for the last time of my life.

[Aphrodine]

I am a Junior in High School taking Health Technology/Medical Science at out local vocational tech school and community college.

The FIRST rule of giving emergency aid is to check the scenerio so you will not become a victim yourself.

Although it is sad to think that the man cut the rope on his friend, ask yourself this: what good would he do to anybody if they both died (let's say his friend did die just for the sake of argument). He did not do a selfish thing, and he was not a horrible person for cutting the rope. He obviously tried to give his friend the best amount of care up until the scene become too dangerous for both to survive.

[/words spoken from a teenager who's job it is to save people.]

[/is on an EMS mentorship, deals with problems like this every weekend.]

[RedShift00]

i would try my bst to save my friend. if it came down to cutting the rope though, i would make sure they would die and not suffer like the broken leg guy did. i would die for my friends, but they would also do the same for me.

[Closet_Rebel]

I would cut the rope above mem but only because I know that I would kill myself later out of guilt anyway... Or maybe send a few last words to the friend's family members, then kill myself. But I couldn't live like that.

[Blade Dancer]

No questions asked. Cut the rope. It's no hard choice. Survival is # 1. Not what your friend thinks of you in the last 5 seconds he's alive. When you are in danger, save yourself. If you were the one with the broken leg...would you want your friend dieing just to live a few minutes longer? Probably not unless you were selfish. (But then you wouldn't have any problem cutting the rope, now would you?) So now your friend is in that position. You know that he would want you to survive, so save yourself. And if he still wants to survive...he doesn't deserve to live.

[Annabobanna]

Bian_Isaura

Interesting thing came up over the day. I was thinking about this mountain climbing story in which these two best friends were stuck in terrible snowstorm on a rather dangerous mountain (don't know if it was K2 or anything) and one of the two apparently had a broken leg. So, the guy who was mobile (aka does not have broken leg) went and pulled and dragged his friend along. But somehow they both ended up sliding backward into a crevasse and dangling just by one rope.

Neither the guy most able to get them out, simply couldn't. And so the dilemma was this: he had to either cut the rope and let his friend die to survive or they both die. In the end, this guy chose to cut the rope. Of course his friend plummeted some 30 or more feet into the crevasse, but miracuously survived and managed to get out somehow, whilst his friend climbed out and went back to base camp.

My question would be this: Given this situation or something similar, would you willing cut the rope? Or would you rather to continue to hang?

There has to be a better option than that. Something in between. There's always something isnt there? sweatdrop

[Blade Dancer]

Annabobanna

There has to be a better option than that. Something in between. There's always something isnt there? sweatdrop

If that's what you expect, then that is why these situations catch people by surprise, and that is why we must discuss them.