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by vorpalhex 1739 days ago
It's unethical to allow harm to fall upon innocent people to stop a bad person.
3 comments

That's just the trolley problem, as other commenters have said. This whole debate is, which is a shame, because it means we're unlikely to convince each other.
This is not a trolley problem. The trolley problem has two assured outcomes - both leading to harm - and requires active intervention to choose the lower harm.

This has definitive harm for a potential gain against future potential harm, versus stopping an active harm at no direct real cost. It's a bird in hand versus two in the bush.

You can't use people in wagers like that.

This quickly devolves into killing one person to save 5... it's a difficult question.
More like definitely killing 5 people to maybe catch a murder.
It's not that clear cut. This is just a variation of the trolley problem.