Would you sacrafice your life to save others?

AdMMM

If the situation arose where you were left with a choice of either saving yourself but at the cost of other dying or saving others at the certain cost of your own life what would you do?

An (admittedly unlikely) example would be that you've discovered a fire in a building, lets say an apartment block (for the elderly) at 4am and it's spreading very fast. The only break glass button on the floor is in an area that the fire seems to be spreading to and the chances of you escaping alive are slim to anorexic! Would you die to press a button and save the others or would you leg it?

I suppose I could use other examples but the bottom line is would you die to save others?

Personally in that example I would probably take a different course of action but overall I actually (and Im almost ashamed to say this) couldnt see myself sacrafice my life. I could definetly see myself jumping in front of a car to save a child because you have a chance of surviving but I definetly couldnt kill myself to save others!

What about you?

Irishpimpdude

I would save a child or someone from my family or a dear friend but no elderly people they have lived for long enough if there in an elderly home i would call 999 though...

mike65

Tricky....!

Frankly if I had time to think I might well cop out IF I judged I had no chance but in the heat of the moment ppl do all sorts of mad heroic things, maybe that would include me.

The only break glass button on the floor is in an area that the fire seems to be spreading to and the chances of you escaping alive are slim to anorexic! Would you die to press a button and save the others or would you leg it?

In this example I'd proberly risk my neck.

Mike.

Dades

I think it's impossible to say what you'd do in circumstances like that. Nobody could ever know until they are put in the situation. I wouldn't consider myself selfless, but I'd hope that when called upon I might do something brave or unexpected. That said there's an equal chance I'd do a runner and call 999.

And yeah I might do something different for a burning creche than an apartment for the elderly.

Good question though!

Manach

The Athesist is correct, saying that depends on the circumstances. From a rational viewpoint, it would be logical to try and save those sharing your genes (familiy). From a moral/theological viewpoint, no greater love hath a man ... - But the instinct for self-preservation is very strong and making such a decision would allow you to have another morning to live with yourself.
My opinion: 50:50 odds.

Catsmokinpot

if it was just one person id be 50:50 but probably end up doing it. more than one person then yes definitely, but if it was a young kid and i was over 40 then i definitely would because by then id say id have had a good run at it, but he has the rest of his life to live

Sleepy

In the heat of the moment I've no idea what I would / wouldn't do and I don't think any of us can say what we would do until faced with the circumstances.

If given a cold decision to choose my life over someone elses I can only think of two people I'd give my life for: my brother and one of my friends (won't say who, leave 'em all guessing!). Obviously this all changes when you bring large numbers of people into the question but honestly you'd have to be speaking pretty huge numbers of strangers before I'd give my life for them. Maybe this makes me a bad person but tbh I feel that it's just animalistic survival. We may have the ability to control our thought processes somewhat but we are, after all, just hairless monkeys.

Dades

Sleepy wrote:

We may have the ability to control our thought processes somewhat but we are, after all, just hairless monkeys.

Speak for yourself, I've still got hair.

It's not unknown in the animal kingdom for animals to sacrifice themselves to save another (particularly of the same kin). I don't think it's something that seperates humans from animals. Maybe in fact it's something left in us, that in a million more years of evolution we might decide our own lives are paramount.

Still think that faced with certain death no-one could know what they'll do.

AdMMM

I suppose to simplify it all, I could have just asked who do you think is more important, yourself or others

Tar.Aldarion

i would give it a shot,you don't know you are going to die for definite but i would gladly risk it for the chance to save some people.

Sleepy

|.Murderer.| wrote:

I suppose to simplify it all, I could have just asked who do you think is more important, yourself or others

Completely different question. I can think of thousands of people more important than me. That doesn't mean I'm prepared to give my life for theirs though.

Kingp35

It entirely depends on the situation. If I knew it was certain death and I had zero chance of surviving then no I wouldn’t. what would would be the point of you were dead. You would know zero difference.

If there was a chance I would survive then more than likely I would try and save them. I couldn’t say for sure but I think that I would try and save them. If it was my family or girlfriend than I definitely would try.

Dades

Sleepy wrote:

I can think of thousands of people more important than me.

Name one.

Does more important mean better than you, more useful, or just important to more people than you believe you are?

KnowItAll

I'd risk my life depending on the person who is at risk.

Sleepy

The Atheist wrote:

Name one.

Does more important mean better than you, more useful, or just important to more people than you believe you are?

Could be any of the three.

Given that I've just left the Harry Potter forum: JK Rowling. Her continued existence would be more important to the world at large than mine because millions of people around the world are eagerly awaiting her next book and would be gutted not to find out how it ends...

For a more sensible answer, I would believe that Bob Geldof's life is more important than mine as I believe his continued existence saves many thousands of other lives whereas mine would only ensure that a few hundred quid a year went to a charity dedicated to this purpose.

And for a closer to home example, I can think of an ex of mine who's still a very close friend and is a far better person than I'll ever be and who's death would be a far greater loss to the world than mine.

amacachi

I'd certainly like to think I would die to save others, coz I'm not much use alive. But I can't say i would for sure, I've no idea how I'd react in that kind of situation.

Dades

Sleepy wrote:

Could be any of the three.

Given that I've just left the Harry Potter forum: JK Rowling. Her continued existence would be more important to the world at large than mine because millions of people around the world are eagerly awaiting her next book and would be gutted not to find out how it ends...

For a more sensible answer, I would believe that Bob Geldof's life is more important than mine as I believe his continued existence saves many thousands of other lives whereas mine would only ensure that a few hundred quid a year went to a charity dedicated to this purpose.

And for a closer to home example, I can think of an ex of mine who's still a very close friend and is a far better person than I'll ever be and who's death would be a far greater loss to the world than mine.

Interesting.

Bob Geldof is probably a great example of someone who's life is "worth" more than yours. Not because it inherantly is, but because his continued work will save thousands of other lives.

I would have used a different word than "important" however. Osama Bin Laden is arguably more important than either of us, and is revered by many. I doubt either of us would sacrifice our lives for his.

Instead Bob Geldof's life is perhaps more "valuable" to the world in general than ours.

Sleepy

Semantics tbh... By important I would mean "important to the world as a whole". I wouldn't consider Bin Laden to be an important individual, an influential one certainly, but not particularly important (I'd say the same about George W. Bush).

I've never been a believer in the notion that all people are equal really. I've always seen people's lives as having various degree's of importance.

Dades

Sleepy wrote:

Semantics tbh...

Absolutely. It was that or let the thread die.

Sleepy wrote:

I've never been a believer in the notion that all people are equal really. I've always seen people's lives as having various degree's of importance.

That's a dangerous notion.

It's fine on one hand where you recognise that another's life may be more valuable than yours, but the obvious flip side is believing that your life is worth more than another. Or two others. Or a hundred others. Ethnic Cleansing has it's roots in the darker side of this notion.

For someone who wants to live, their life is as important to them, as yours is to you.

TerrorFirmer

Not going to lie about it, I'd probably leg it and phone for help, and I'm not in any way ashamed or embarrassed to say that.

I'm all for helping out whenever you can but not to an extent where you have better chances of dying then living. Perhaps if it was someone particularly close to me, but for everyday people, my goodwill would not extend that large as to risk my life.

And its easy of course to give an answer without actually experiencing such an event, but I know myself if such a thing, god forbid, came to pass, I would indeed not risk my life, no point in masking it with anything else other then the truth.

/regarding the above post, I believe any one person is equal to another. Perhaps not in all senses considered but at a basic level we are all human beings and we only live once - when everything is stripped away...

That said, of course the contributions do indeed vary in value to society...

Sleepy

The Atheist wrote:

That's a dangerous notion.

It's fine on one hand where you recognise that another's life may be more valuable than yours, but the obvious flip side is believing that your life is worth more than another. Or two others. Or a hundred others. Ethnic Cleansing has it's roots in the darker side of this notion.

For someone who wants to live, their life is as important to them, as yours is to you.

Obviously, however, in the search for the truth we must set aside notions of good and evil.

U$ername

I have been working on improving my self-esteem since puberty, at its current rate of increase there isnt a hope I would sacrifice my life for another.

On the other hand, they could make a clone of me to live out what would have been the rest of my "natural" life...

jazzbandit

I'd leggit