The trolley problem and the corona virus

A columnist in the Dutch daily De Volkskrant, Ionica Smeets, drew my attention to the relevance of the trolley problem for the present corona crisis. Since I have discussed the trolley problem already several times in my blogs, I think that it’s good to devote a few words to this theme in my blogs as well. Without a doubt, most of my regular readers will certainly remember what the trolley problem involves, but for those who have forgotten it or simply don’t know what it is about, here it is in short:

Case 1. A driverless, runaway trolley on a railway is heading for a tunnel, in which it would kill five people. As a bystander, you can save their lives by turning a switch and redirecting the trolley to another track. However, there is a man walking on that other track that would be killed instead of the five. Would you kill one person in order to save five?

There is also another version of the trolley problem (actually there are more versions, but that’s not important here):

Case 2. The same situation but now you, the bystander, are standing on a footbridge above the track. You are slim and short but a large man is just crossing the bridge. If you jump on the track, you will be run over by the trolley, which will kill you and the five people as well. If you push the large man on the track, he will be killed but the trolley will stop and the five will be saved. Would you push the man?

Most people say “yes” in Case 1 and “no” in Case 2. Apparently, it makes a difference, whether you actively (intentionally) kill a person or passively (let it happen that it happens). To put it differently, in Case 1, you might reason, “Well, by turning the switch one person is killed instead of five, so four lives are saved.” Also in Case 2 four lives will be saved, but the first part of your reasoning will run now: “Well, by turning the switch I kill one person, etc.”.

Put yourself now the position of the governments, local authorities and others who must decide whether or not to close theatres; forbid sports matches; close schools; to place persons in quarantine, even if they are not or not yet ill; to forbid healthy people to go out for the simple reason that they are 70 years of age or older, even if they are top fit; or the same for handicapped persons, even if they are healthy and, say, running a big enterprise; and so on. This is a real moral problem. On the face of it, you might say, that many lives will be saved by the measures, since they help prevent that people are killed by the corona virus. On the other hand, there are many questions that may cast doubts on the  ̶  moral  ̶   rightness of the decisions or at least may show that all these measures to “lock down” the economy don’t simply lead to saving lives and that is it. For these measures will also lead to an economic downturn and it’s a known that in times of economic decline more people die because of the bad economic situation. So, this is the trolley case of five persons killed against one on a social level.

In addition, measures like closing restaurants, theatres, schools etc., forbidding events, stopping “non-essential” economic activities will ruin many people, especially those who work freelance, have a small business, are self-employed or have an independent profession. A part of them will be ruined and go bankrupt and some will never recover and will lead a miserable life for the rest of their lives (which may lead to an early death, by the way). Others will have to give up their present ambitions (like sportsmen who thought to take part in the Olympic Games but cannot prepare themselves well) and their lives can be turned into another unwished-for direction (which, in the long run, might also work positively, however). Or just a very different problem, say you are a doctor. The intensive care of your hospital is occupied till the last bed, and so are the intensive care units of the hospitals in your region. Now another patient for the intensive care arrives. What must you do? Let the patient die? Exchange a person who has more chance to survive without intensive care for this new patient? Or what if the new patient is a young man or woman who had an accident and who will certainly survive on condition that s/he is treated on the intensive care? Must the doctor exchange this patient for an old man or woman who will have only a few extra years to live if s/he survives? Probably, the doctor will not take the decision alone but together with his/her team, but this doesn’t change the moral problem as such. This case is clearly a case 2 type, but it is to be wondered whether case 1 types of decisions are really easier to take. And if you take a closer look at case 1 type decisions, it may turn out that they are not really different from case 2 type decisions and that in practice the difference between both types of cases is gradual. But what kind of decisions are taken, it is to be wondered whether in such trolley cases correct decisions do exist.

Source

- Ionica Smeets, “Vijf doden”, in: De Volkskrant, 14 March 2020, Boeken&Wetenschap, p. 21

- Old blogs on the trolley proble. Go to “Search This Blog” at the top of the right column of this blog page and search for “trolley problem”.