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Now, this may not count as philosophy, but it makes for good discussion. If this does not fit well enough with the theme of the guild, I'd be more than happy to ask a Mod to remove it myself. Of course, I'm sure you'll all do that before I get a chance, so I won't worry for now.

Anyway, here's the situation:

You are married, and you have one child. The child is young; age 1-4, perhaps a bit older. The time that you and your significant other have been together is irrelevant; you love them, they love you. You fight, but only as much as any couple. And, of course, you love your child.

Then, tragedy. It does not matter how it happened, but the two are critically injured. They can be saved, and they will make a full recovery. However, you can save only one.

The reason? Insufficient funds on your part; both need a specific organ replaced and there is but one that matches; the hospital is overworked and only has enough staff for one. You choose the circumstance, as I do not think it important.

Now, which do you choose?

On one hand, there is the child. A new life, with endless possibilities.

On the other, your love. Your "soul mate."

Which do you save?

I was hoping that others would come to this thread, but I guess it really isn't worth discussion. Although you, my friend, gave the perfect answer for this to be kept alive. I now ask you this: Why the child? Granted, this child is your flesh and blood, and you do love them dearly. However, the other is your "soul mate," an already functioning member of society that requires no training, and can support themselves in the world. In short, why lose this when you have a child that has been on this earth for but a few years. A child that must still be raised, when there is not only a functioning member of society but also your love?

I agree with Smoovegeek, the question is unrealistic. Also, people who find themselves in such extreme situations often behave in a manner which is impossible to predict.

Smoovegeek mentioned an interesting problem though - the basis, on which we rest our ethics. What is your opinion on that?

Well, I would choose my soulmate. Now, before yuou bite my head off here is my reason: We can have another one. I would rather have the chance to have more with the one that I love than to just have one, and have to explain that Daddy died.

my wife. I'm nothing without her. if I lose her I will fell incomplete and I will begin to fall and make bad choices ruining my life. my child(by my belief) will go to heaven where he will be with God and live a much beter life than he would on earth. my wife and me can always have another shild. but love like that only comes once.

Hmm. The only answer I can think of is to let them both die and allow someone else to live(another patient in the hospital, for instance).

Why?

If I save the child, he will be scarred for life. I will be upset for a long time, and if I ever recover, I will have to raise the child on my own. The child will live a disturbing childhood, and would probably someday discover that his mother died because he lived. That's not the life I would want for the kid.

If I save my soulmate, the child dies. She would probably be extremely disappointed in me, and we might end up separating. If not, we will both be scarred for who knows how long. We might not even recover.

However, if both die, only I go through pain. I will probably recover eventually. Then, I can start my life again. Not only would I have saved a different life, but I would not have to live with the guilt of choosing one over the other. If I chose either way, I would be doing something terrible. So if there was truly no way to save them both, I would not try to have either saved.

Hmmm, interesting. There are many aspecs, and yes it is somewhat unlikely for these circumstances to occur to you...but still.

Child: Well, there will be scars on the child with only one parent and might know that it was in part their fault(if you tell them what happened they may take it that it was their fault as they took what would have saved them). Also, you will have to support the child WITHOUT the help of your life partner. That includes with money and with their overall emotional and mental development. There is also the chance that they many not live long enough to do much anyways as children are weaker and may already have some other injuries given from the accident that may make them somewhat weaker. But on one hand they may have great potential to become a great part of society to help the world.

Wife: you can have more children if you ever feel welcome to having another again. You can both work and save up money, and not to be somewhat cruel to the sacrafice of the child, you don't have to support them anymore so you may be able to live more financially seure lives. Though your wife may have a better chance for mental problems by the sacrafice than a 1 to 4 year old child that doesn't even know what is happening and is likely to forget this event(though the question of what happened to mommy will appear somewhere in the road).

sac them both?: Why? Can you handle that? It will create alot more emotional damage to you than one dying. Plus there is no way to determine if this person has a problem or is somebody that deserve it as much.


Overall i believe it depends on your attachment to each one of them and your state with them thus far. You will also be unpredictable as others in this thread have pointed out. It all depends on all the things that went on with each of you. This is why i don't answer many things unless all the information is present. There are many things that could alter the final result or decision.

But, if i had the same level of attachment with each of them i MIGHT pick the wife. Though, as i am only 15, i can't entirely answer this. sorry ^^

note: sorry if this post makes me seem like an idiot. I did wright this at 12:30 pm and am somewhat tired.

While I have considered this and all the consequences if I made the decision with no stressful circumstances or other influencing aspects then I would choose my love. Mainly for the reason that if there is no permanent damage, including psycological, then we can still have another child.

However I understand that most likely she would blame me for the death of the child and wonder why I didn't save it instead, at least any woman I would want to be with would think this. I also understand that even if she was to make a full phisical recovery, she would most likely have psycological issues about whether she can have another child, probably wondering if she still wants to raise a child with someone who would carelessly abandon it in a choice between her and it.

Though since a completely even choice is unlikely, I would do as all would: try to save both of them as best I can. In an accident or some other incident that requires fast action I would help whoever I could get to first, probably the child because of it's small size. If time constraints or other circumstances stopped me from saving both then I would blame myself for failing to save them and in the case of me rescuing the child I would look after it to the best of my ability and most likely not commit myself to another relationship until the child had grown up and moved out at least. Not wanting to be seen as turning away from the child's mother.