• Question: Would you be willing to sacrifice your life in order for our scientific knowledge to develop, potentially saving the lives of thousands of people?

    Asked by Millie to Clare, Glafkos, Paul, Samantha on 13 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Glafkos Havariyoun

      Glafkos Havariyoun answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Wow that is a deep question! Would you ?

      It’s the word potentially that bothers me. If it would definitely save the life of thousands of people I would think about it and it would also depend which part of my life I was as well. I mean if I had family and children I would think about them as well!

    • Photo: Samantha Terry

      Samantha Terry answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      It depends on my own situation. If I was already ill then theoretically I hope I would sacrifice myself. But you never know until the moment arises. Also, if I did, I would need to be incredibly certain that my sacrifice would benefit people.

    • Photo: Clare Devery

      Clare Devery answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      If my passing were to provide the knowledge to further science then I would happily make the sacrifice. However, I’d like to believe that the contribution I can make when alive would be greater than if I were dead!!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Yes I guess I would, potentialy saving the lives of many others for my teeny life, why not!

    • Photo: Paul Booker

      Paul Booker answered on 15 Mar 2015:

      That’s a tricky ethics question! It’s difficult to know whether or not I could ever be sure enough that such a sacrifice would generate the sort of life-saving knowledge you mentioned (especially since you used the word ‘potentially’ rather than ‘definitely’)! From a utilitarian perspective it makes sense, but I think you’d need to quantify the likelihood of success for me a bit better before I commit!

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