How about this? I realize a lot of the points stretch credulity, but I think you should be able to imagine the situation.
Your family member requires a kidney transplant or they will die in 6 months. With the transplant, you can expect they will live an average of 10 additional days. Normal channels of obtaining one have completely failed. By some happenstance, you know of a 25-year-old pretty average-seeming woman who is a signed-up donor (you are not personally acquainted with her), and happen to know that if she dies, your family member will receive the transplant. Do you kill her and make it look like an accident in order to get the transplant, given that you know you would definitely for sure get away with it?
Only 10 additional days? I’m sorry but the expected utility in quality of life is far too low to make an investment. Undertaking a kidney transplant (of any kind) will result in a great deal of pain for my loved one and the time spend in preparations, surgery, and recovery would consume most of the 10 additional days gained by the surgery. To say nothing of the monetary expenses and moral problems that would result from committing murder.
In such a scenario, I would be much better off investing my resources into making my loved ones remaining days pleasant, their death as painless as possible, and perhaps investing into cryonics so that they may be revived at a later date.
A great deal of this decision is inspired by reading the Wall Street Journal article Why Doctors Die Differently which states that the majority of healthcare professionals seem to prefer dieing peacefully at home rather than undergo risky life extending treatments.
While I doubt a family member dying at home from a kidney disease would count as ‘peaceful’ in most definitions of the word, undergoing invasive surgery in an attempt to gain a few extra days simply isn’t worth it from a quality of life standpoint.
I take your point that you could argue that the ten days would produce disutility or at least very little utility, however the point is to answer the question in the least possible world—where the ten days actually are about as good as regular days. If you’re having trouble imagining that, make it twenty or thirty days, or whatever you think would be equivalent to ten regular days.
To say nothing of the monetary expenses and moral problems that would result from committing murder.
Well, the whole point is that the revealed preferences from Kawoomba’s post above should easily overrule such considerations, and therefore checking whether they do or not should clarify whether he’s acting under extreme scope insensitivity or some other confounding factor.
Well, the whole point is that the revealed preferences from Kawoomba’s post above should easily overrule such considerations, and therefore checking whether they do or not should clarify whether he’s acting under extreme scope insensitivity or some other confounding factor.
How about this? I realize a lot of the points stretch credulity, but I think you should be able to imagine the situation.
Your family member requires a kidney transplant or they will die in 6 months. With the transplant, you can expect they will live an average of 10 additional days. Normal channels of obtaining one have completely failed. By some happenstance, you know of a 25-year-old pretty average-seeming woman who is a signed-up donor (you are not personally acquainted with her), and happen to know that if she dies, your family member will receive the transplant. Do you kill her and make it look like an accident in order to get the transplant, given that you know you would definitely for sure get away with it?
Only 10 additional days? I’m sorry but the expected utility in quality of life is far too low to make an investment. Undertaking a kidney transplant (of any kind) will result in a great deal of pain for my loved one and the time spend in preparations, surgery, and recovery would consume most of the 10 additional days gained by the surgery. To say nothing of the monetary expenses and moral problems that would result from committing murder.
In such a scenario, I would be much better off investing my resources into making my loved ones remaining days pleasant, their death as painless as possible, and perhaps investing into cryonics so that they may be revived at a later date.
A great deal of this decision is inspired by reading the Wall Street Journal article Why Doctors Die Differently which states that the majority of healthcare professionals seem to prefer dieing peacefully at home rather than undergo risky life extending treatments.
While I doubt a family member dying at home from a kidney disease would count as ‘peaceful’ in most definitions of the word, undergoing invasive surgery in an attempt to gain a few extra days simply isn’t worth it from a quality of life standpoint.
I take your point that you could argue that the ten days would produce disutility or at least very little utility, however the point is to answer the question in the least possible world—where the ten days actually are about as good as regular days. If you’re having trouble imagining that, make it twenty or thirty days, or whatever you think would be equivalent to ten regular days.
Well, the whole point is that the revealed preferences from Kawoomba’s post above should easily overrule such considerations, and therefore checking whether they do or not should clarify whether he’s acting under extreme scope insensitivity or some other confounding factor.
Ah, my mistake.