Sinking Ship Scenario – No Ethical Perspective
Scenario
The ship is sinking and the seas are rough. All but one lifeboat has been destroyed. The lifeboat holds a maximum of six people. There are ten people that want to board the lifeboat. The four individuals who do not board the boat will certainly die.
- Woman who thinks she is six weeks pregnant
- Lifeguard
- Two young adults who recently married
- Senior citizen who has fifteen grandchildren
- Elementary school teacher
- Thirteen year old twins
- Veteran nurse
- Captain of the ship
No Ethical Perspective
The first time we did this project we got into pairs of two and had to discuss who we were going to save out of the ten people and why. This was a hard decision we had to make because we were deciding the fate of these individuals which can be hard if you are limited with information. It is also to decide this because you and your partner will most likely have different opinions in who will survive and who will not. For me the most difficult part of this was decided who is worth saving because i kept imagining myself in every persons shoes knowing that i am about to die and someone is going to choose that fate for me and what if it was myself choosing, would i risk my life just because i was the weakest out of the bunch or would i be selfish and save myself?
For us to decide who we were going to leave and who we were going to bring we had to look at every person individually and think and how they can help humanity and how much worth they are during the trip as well.
| Name of individual | Reason for leaving or staying | Raft or staying |
| Woman who thinks she is six weeks pregnant | For this women, we mialy decided to keep her because we felt it was wrong to kill her due to the fact that she was carrying a baby. We also thought that we were saving two people for the price of one. One of the problems we had with taking her was that she would need more food and water on the raft which would be bad. Overall, my partner and I had about the same opinion about her. | Raft |
| Lifeguard | This decision wasnt very had to make because both my partner and I thought he was a good candidate. They could especially help with health issues or any other problems that may occur on the raft. This person would also be trained in emergencies if we ever needed them. | Raft |
| young woman who recently married | My partner and i also agreed quite a lot with this one. I thought that the woman and man (if they are a woman and man) should stay together because they are probably very inlove and would do anything for each other. We decided to not let them live because there weren’t enough spaces but also because we thought they could at least die with the person they love, which would be a happier death than the rest of these people. | Staying |
| young man who recently married | We had pretty much the same ideas for the man, he should stay with his wife and their love can live on in spirit. | Staying |
| Senior citizen who has fifteen grandchildren | This person was someone who we couldn’t agree on. I wanted the school teacher to live and my partner wanted the senior citizen. The reason i wanted her to not go on the raft was because I said that she had already done everything she needed to do on this planet and we should give another person a chance to live and survive. I also said that they need more care because they are getting old and their bodies stop to function as well. From experience from my granny, i thought they would need more food and complain and anything could harm they deeply. We decided to keep her because we had to compromise and come up with a decision. | Raft |
| Elementary school teacher | I wanted to keep the elementary school teacher and my partner didn’t. I felt that she was a better choice compared to the senior citizen because she was probably younger and because we would have a better future due to the fact that she educates people. My partner also said that she didn’t matter because she was a kids teacher and not a young adults teacher but then I said that these kids needed to be guided into the right direction to become respectable young adults and this teacher could also be a child’s role model and guided them to the path of success. I felt she was worth saving. | Staying |
| Thirteen year old twin 1 and 2 | My partner and I decided that we wanted to keep both of the twins together and would not separate them just like the newly married couple. We also said that these kids are still very young and they should have a chance to live life because they barely saw any of it. We also thought about the factor that they were so young and alone and we mostly felt bad for them because all they had was each other. | Raft
Raft |
| Veteran nurse | We felt that if they had done a good job in the past, then they would be able to help if anyone is drowning or not well. I also thought about how she had serves such good service before and it would almost be unethical to let her die because she had sacrificed her life for others in the past. She was also just very useful and had the skills that we would need to survive. | Raft |
| Captain of the ship | This one was very hard but i decided that the captain of the ship would die. Even though he would probably be helpful on the raft, with navigation and other boat related skill i felt he didn’t deserve it. As a captain of a ship he would know the risks of sinking and it could happen to anyone but he decided to take the risk as his job. By taking this job he has then become in charge of everyones lives on the boat and he needs to think of his passengers before himself. He needs to save and help theirs lives even if the sinking wasn’t his fault. He lives and dies with his boat and i think that is the most responsible and ethical thing to do. Even if he would save himself and let other passengers die, he would be shamed upon by society. For example, in norway there was a shooting on an island not far from the mainland and it was a camp for young politicians. A lot of kids died but not all of them did, most were scared and hiding and just didn’t know how to get off the island. The leader of the camp just took the nearest speed boat and left to save himself while leaving his responsibilities and fellow students to die. He is now shamed upon society because he did not do his job in ensuring these kids safety. | Staying |
Survive:
- Lifeguard
- Nurse
- Twin 1
- Twin 2
- Senior ↓
- Pregnant
Kill:
- Teacher ↑
- Captain
- Husband
- Wife
One of the ways we decided who was going to live and die was sorting them thought usefulness and least useful. Then we did something similar but with most moral and least moral. This helped us come to a conclusion.
Usefulness
- Lifeguard
- Nurse
- Captain
- Teacher
- Husband
- Twin 1 or 2
Least Useful
- Twin 2 or 1
- Senior
- Pregnant woman
- Wife
Morality
- Senior
- Pregnant Woman
- Twin 1
- Twin 2
- Husband
- Wife
Least Moral
- Captain
- Lifeguard
- Nurse
- Teacher
Work Cited: https://www.nwabr.org/sites/default/files/Lifeboat.pdf
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