Comments on: New Scientific Journal: Neuroethics http://www.bloggernews.net/114570 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:35:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Nancy Reyes http://www.bloggernews.net/114570#comment-261763 Nancy Reyes Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:29:16 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/114570#comment-261763 Ethical choices are biologically innate but honed by practice. In an emergency, one may react by emotion, or one may act by training...i.e. recognizing that the building may fall down, but in your daily choices in choosing to be a firefighter, your choice is to save life even at the risk of your own. As for the trolley scenerio: That is simply the principle of double effect. You chose to change the trolley to another track to save five people. You do not chose to kill one person. In the "throw fat momma in front of the train" scenerio, you choose to kill mama in hopes that others will be saved. This is pragmatic, but not ethical. In ethics, you are not allowed to do evil in order that good should result. This is true whether it is aborting a malformed child or in torturing a terrorist to find where he hid the bomb. Of course, I don't agree with kant, I prefer Aristotle. Ethical choices are biologically innate but honed by practice. In an emergency, one may react by emotion, or one may act by training…i.e. recognizing that the building may fall down, but in your daily choices in choosing to be a firefighter, your choice is to save life even at the risk of your own.

As for the trolley scenerio: That is simply the principle of double effect.

You chose to change the trolley to another track to save five people. You do not chose to kill one person.

In the “throw fat momma in front of the train” scenerio, you choose to kill mama in hopes that others will be saved.

This is pragmatic, but not ethical.

In ethics, you are not allowed to do evil in order that good should result.

This is true whether it is aborting a malformed child or in torturing a terrorist to find where he hid the bomb.

Of course, I don’t agree with kant, I prefer Aristotle.

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