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> I've never gotten why so many people think that the physical act of pulling or not pulling makes so much difference. By pulling the level, one is intentionally killing a person, to save five. In more general terms, a life is taken away for the greater good of society. A foundation of societies (modern ones, and I guess, some more than others) is that taking a life away has highly specific restrictions, which are usually justified by the person doing harmful acts (representing a danger to other people). To put it in another way, any citizen has the guarantee that, unless they do something harmful, they're safe. It's a contract between the citizen and the society. By pulling the lever to save one, the contract is broken. To be consistent with the societal principle, it should be the person on the alternate track to decide whether the lever should be pulled, not an observer. (The above reasoning is based on a very generic vision of the law. If anybody has some details, they're very welcome :)) |