If you can come up with better hypotheticals, please do present one. The trolley-one is used so often most likely because there are no good alternatives.
Also, you seem to have missed the point of the trolley problem as it has been presented. The main point in thinking about it is that you notice that a), you have ethical intuitions, and b), they can change to polar opposite if the starting position is altered even a bit. That’s just healthy experimentation that’s supposed to provoke thoughts. I can’t see how changing this example would prevent people from justifying their thoughts in politics by misguided simplifications.
If you can come up with better hypotheticals, please do present one. The trolley-one is used so often most likely because there are no good alternatives.
Also, you seem to have missed the point of the trolley problem as it has been presented. The main point in thinking about it is that you notice that a), you have ethical intuitions, and b), they can change to polar opposite if the starting position is altered even a bit. That’s just healthy experimentation that’s supposed to provoke thoughts. I can’t see how changing this example would prevent people from justifying their thoughts in politics by misguided simplifications.