CJ305 Intro to Crim Justice Ethics W1 Discussion: “The Lifeboat”
Hello Class! For this discussion you can choose which question you respond to. Feel free to respond to both, however only one is required. Please respond to one of the following questions:
Question A – What is your current knowledge level of this course topic, and what do you hope to learn
before the course is over?
Question B – You are in a lifeboat along with four others. You have enough food and water to keep only
four people alive for the several weeks you expect to be adrift until you float into a shipping land and can be discovered and rescued. You will definitely all perish if the five of you consume all the food and water.
There is the suggestion that one of you should die so the other four can live. Would you volunteer to commit suicide?
Would you vote to have one go overboard if you choose by straws? Would you vote to throw overboard the weakest and least healthy of the five?
Assuming, a homicide was committed, if you were on a jury judging the behavior of the four who did kill the fifth person in order to stay alive, would you acquit them or convict them of murder? Would your answer be different if the murdered victim was your son or daughter?