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Full Idea
If a runaway tram is heading towards a track on which five people are standing, and there is someone who can switch the points, diverting it onto a track where there is one person,...this is diverting a fatal sequence, not starting a new one.
Gist of Idea
Making a runaway tram kill one person instead of five is diverting a fatal sequence, not initiating one
Source
Philippa Foot (Killing and Letting Die [1985], p.85)
Book Ref
Foot,Philippa: 'Moral Dilemmas' [OUP 2002], p.85
A Reaction
Suppose the one person was of immense community value, or someone you personally hated? Clearly she is interested in the agent's virtue, rather than the actual consequences.
4692 | It is not true that killing and allowing to die (or acts and omissions) are morally indistinguishable [Foot] |
4693 | The right of non-interference (with a 'negative duty'), and the right to goods/services ('positive') [Foot] |
4694 | Making a runaway tram kill one person instead of five is diverting a fatal sequence, not initiating one [Foot] |