{"id":178,"date":"2009-09-16T21:05:35","date_gmt":"2009-09-16T21:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html"},"modified":"2009-09-16T21:05:35","modified_gmt":"2009-09-16T21:05:35","slug":"whose-life-would-you-save","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html","title":{"rendered":"Whose Life Would You Save?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think I need to take a mental break from the race question<\/a>, truly frightening schoolyard violence<\/a>, health care reform, civility<\/a> and the handful of other topics America is getting itself enraged over this week. So, let’s play a game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Most of us have played different versions of the who-would-you-save game. You know it, “If you’re in a sinking ship and you can either save yourself and your husband\/wife from drowning OR you can save everyone else on the boat…but they’re all strangers. Who would you save?”\u00a0\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I was laughed out of the room when I recently posed this dilemma to my friends, because I insisted I would choose the strangers. After all, said I, my husband and I could die together and with a clean conscience – who wants to live with the deaths of hundreds of strangers on their shoulders? Not I, I maintain (ed).\u00a0\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Pu-leeaaase,” scoffed my pals (all somewhat cynical males, I submit). “You would save yourself and your husband and you know it.”\u00a0\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
No way! Sure, dying is bad, something to be avoided at all costs, but I really, really<\/span> don’t want to live with the knowledge that I could have saved a boatload of people, even if that meant my husband and I get 10,000 years of marital bliss.
\nPerhaps that’s not so much ethical as selfish – then again, isn’t most ethical behavior based on the premise of selfishness? We do unto others because we want them to do unto us. That’s not bad, it just is.\u00a0\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So, tell me, am I full of it, as my friends so kindly say? Who would you save? Yourself and a loved one, or a boatload of strangers?
\n<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
poll by twiigs.com<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think I need to take a mental break from the race question, truly frightening schoolyard violence, health care reform, civility and the handful of other topics America is getting itself enraged over this week. So, let’s play a game.\u00a0 Most of us have played different versions of the who-would-you-save game. You know it, “If…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-padmini-mangunta","category-moral-ethics","category-personal-ethics","category-social-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nWhose Life Would You Save? - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whose Life Would You Save? - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I think I need to take a mental break from the race question, truly frightening schoolyard violence, health care reform, civility and the handful of other topics America is getting itself enraged over this week. So, let’s play a game.\u00a0 Most of us have played different versions of the who-would-you-save game. You know it, “If…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-16T21:05:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Padmini Mangunta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Whose Life Would You Save? - Everyday Ethics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Whose Life Would You Save? - Everyday Ethics","og_description":"I think I need to take a mental break from the race question, truly frightening schoolyard violence, health care reform, civility and the handful of other topics America is getting itself enraged over this week. So, let’s play a game.\u00a0 Most of us have played different versions of the who-would-you-save game. You know it, “If…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Ethics","article_published_time":"2009-09-16T21:05:35+00:00","author":"Padmini Mangunta","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html","name":"Whose Life Would You Save? - Everyday Ethics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-16T21:05:35+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-16T21:05:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/f3ed03a01300bae11302f037d0eb91f1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/whose-life-would-you-save.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Whose Life Would You Save?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/","name":"Everyday Ethics","description":"Moral Ethics Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/f3ed03a01300bae11302f037d0eb91f1","name":"Padmini Mangunta","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5a4\/5a49e4a981c7ab22c6c140c90fe5d812x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5a4\/5a49e4a981c7ab22c6c140c90fe5d812x96.jpg","caption":"Padmini Mangunta"},"description":"Padmini Mangunta is a writer and editor with a Journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}