Choosing the More Ethical Option

the AZEL PERSPECTIVE Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 419 B

José Azel's latest books "On Freedom" and "Sobre La Libertad" are now available on Amazon.  Choosing the More Ethical Option (Previously published) Share Tweet Forward

Does our society owe anything to the poor or the unfortunate? If so, at what cost to others should help be provided? Philosophers who struggle with these questions often refer to a thought experiment in ethics and psychology called the trolley problem. The trolley problem illustrates the ethical dilemma of whether to sacrifice one person to save a larger number of persons The basic scenario describes a runaway trolley on course to collide with and kill five people down the track. The people are unable to move, and the trolley is headed straight for them. But you, as a bystander, can intervene and divert the trolley to kill just one person on a different track. You are standing next to a lever in the train yard. If you pull this lever the trolley will switch to a different track and avoid hitting the five people. However, there is one person on the track you will divert the trolley to. Your options are: Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track or pull the lever to divert the trolley to a secondary track where it will kill one person.  What is the right thing to do? Or more technically, which is the more ethical option to follow?  Philosopher Philippa Foot introduced this genre of decision problems in a 1967 paper and many variations have been introduced since. One variation you may find more challenging posits that the one person on the secondary track that will, or will not, be sacrificed is your own child. What then?  Another interesting variation sets the problem as before, with a trolley racing towards five people but you are on a bridge under which the trolley will pass. You can stop the trolley by placing something heavy in front of it. In this variation there is a very fat man next to you on the bridge. You can stop the trolley by pushing the fat man over the bridge onto the track. This action will save the five but kill the fat man. Should you, do it?  It turns out that most people that would pull the switch will not push the fat man to save the five. Is there a significant moral distinction between the two variations?  Interestingly, trolley-type issues have arisen in the ethics of designing self-driven vehicles which require programing of whom or what to strike when a collision appears unavoidable. Should the vehicles software place more, or less, value on the safety of the car’s occupants or on the safety of potential victims outside the car. Would you be willing to purchase a self-driven car programed to sacrifice yourself in an accident situation? What would be the marketing line? Automakers are currently dealing with these topics.  In 2017 a realistic trolley-problem experiment was conducted where individuals were placed alone in a train-switching station and shown footage they thought was real (but it was pre- recorded) of a train going down a track with five workers on the main track, and one on the secondary track. Most of the participants did not pull the lever thus allowing the trolley to kill the five people on the main track. Keep in mind this was an actual experiment; on the other hand, in several surveys a majority of respondent have chosen to kill the one and save the five. Do you agree?  One consideration philosophers point out is that in the case of the five deaths on the main track, you have no intention of deliberately harming anyone, whereas by switching to the secondary track you deliberately intend someone’s death, and this is wrong. This philosophical doctrine allows an action that, without intention, has bad effects. Yet, intending harm deliberately, even if it is for a good cause, is wrong.  So, let’s bring the trolley problem to policymaking? For instance, how do we choose what is the more ethical option in our tax laws? If deliberately intending harm, even if it is for a good cause, is wrong then are we comfortable taxing the few disproportionally high to help the many?  Please let us know if you  this article. We welcome your feedback. Abrazos, Lily & José (click on the name to email Lily or Jose) José Azel, Ph.D. José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.   He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, Jose Azel has published extensively on Cuba related topics. In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami. José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp. They cycled St. James Way (El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary and throughout southern France.  They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast and in the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they rafted for 17 days 220 miles in the Grand Canyon.  Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them.  Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro. Books by Dr. José Azel José Azel’s writings are touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone who wishes to understand why countries do, or do not, progress will find in this book the best explanations. And, from these readings emerge numerous inferences: How and why do the good intentions of leftist collectivism lead countries to hell? Why is liberty not a sub product of prosperity, but rather one of its causes? If it was in my power, this work would be required reading for all college and university students, and I would also recommend its reading to all politicians, journalists, and policymakers. With his writings Azel accomplishes what was achieved in France by Frédéric Bastiat, and in the United States by Henry Hazlitt: Azel brings together common sense with intelligent observation, and academic substance. Stupendous, Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                                    BUY NOW Los escritos de José Azel están tocados por la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquiera que desee entender por qué los países progresan, o no, encontrará en este libro las mejores explicaciones. De estas lecturas surgen numerosas inferencias: ¿Cómo y por qué las buenas intenciones del colectivismo de izquierda llevan a los países al infierno? ¿Por qué la libertad no es un subproducto de la prosperidad, sino una de sus causas? Si estuviera en mis manos, esta obra sería de obligada lectura de todos los estudiantes universitarios, pero además, le recomendaría su lectura a todos los políticos, periodistas y policy makers. Con sus escritos Azel logra lo que Frédéric Bastiat consiguiera en Francia y Henry Hazlitt en Estados Unidos: aunar el sentido común, la observación inteligente y la enjundia académica. Estupendo. Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                            Compre Aqui "Liberty for beginners is much more than what the title promises. It is eighty themes touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone that wishes to understand why countries do, or do not progress, will find in this book the best explanations. Stupendous" Carlos Alberto Montaner Buy Now "Libertad para novatos es mucho más de lo que promete el título. Son ochenta temas tocados con la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquier adulto que desee saber por qué progresan o se estancan los pueblos aquí encontrará las mejores explicaciones. Estupendo." Carlos Alberto Montaner Compre Aqui In Reflections on Freedom, José Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles. Buy Now En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico. Compre Aqui Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future. Buy now Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish. Buy now