Do you like bending your mind this way and that?
I’ve recently bought a book, a collection of one hundred philosophical puzzles that stimulate thought on a host of moral, social, and personal dilemmas. Author Julian Baggini presents abstract philosophical issues in concrete terms. He also suggests possible solutions (but not claiming which are more correct than others) and encourage readers to draw their own conclusions.
I think you might want to take a look at it. The title of the book is The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher.
Have a taste of what’s inside the book and we’ll see how you’ll react to this one:
Life dependency
Dick had made a mistake, but surely the price he was paying was too high. He, of course, knew that level six of the hospital was a restricted area. But after he had drunk one too many glasses of wine with his colleagues at the finance department Christmas party, he had inadvertently staggered out of the elevator on the sixth floor and passed out on one of the empty beds.
When he woke up, he discovered to his horror that he had been mistaken for a volunteer in a new life-saving procedure. Patients who required vital organ transplants to survive were being hooked up to volunteers, whose own vital organs kept both alive. This would continue until a donor organ could be found, which was usually around nine months later.
Dick quickly called over a nurse to explain the mistake, who in turn brought over a worried-looking doctor.
“I understand your anger,” explained the doctor, “but you did behave irresponsibly, and now you are in this position, the brutal truth is that if we disconnect you, the world-renowned violinist who depends on you will die. You would in fact be murdering him.”
“But you have no right!” protested Dick. “Even if he dies without me, how can you force me to give up nine months of my life to save him?”
“I think the question you should be asking,” said the doctor sternly, “is how you could choose to end this violinist’s life.”
Source: The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher by Julian Baggini
I think this is a better way of spending the day than watching all those telenovelas, which I don’t watch. Haha.
So, what do you think of the above-mentioned problem?
November 29th, 2007 at 13:29
The doctors have no right to make him “responsible” for the violinist’s death, because he didn’t accept the responsibility in the first place. The only responsibilities that can be imposed on a person are ones that involve their *own* lives, not the lives of others.
And so what if he’s a world renowned violinist? He’s not any more important than any other person.
Jon Limjap’s last blog post..Earthquake!
November 29th, 2007 at 20:49
I agree with Jon that you can’t make the man responsible for killing the violinist. However, his irresponsibility brought him to this situation, so in part he should be blamed. I’m assuming that anyone who comes to the sixth level is assumed to be a volunteer, and you couldn’t blame the doctors for mistaking him for a volunteer.
Him being in this situation is his responsibility. But the life of the world-renowned violinist is not his responsibility. If I were the man, I’d bear the brunt of my irresponsibility because it’s my fault that I got in that situation anyway.
Okay, I think I just made it more complicated. Hehe.
Doc Tess, where did you buy this and for how much? I like it! It stimulates my brain. Hehehehe. Woke up my long-dormant neurons and brain cells. =P
November 30th, 2007 at 0:29
I knew you were talking about this book. I was browsing it at National a month ago. I really think I should buy it already.
On the above case:
First of all the “hospital” is very irresponsible for hooking up a man who has no records and without a signed consent form. They can’t do anything should he wish to live normally. Second, I think the man can choose to be separated. Di ba yung ethics priniciple na the good is intended (his own life and dignity) and the evil is only permitted (the other man dies) but not intended.
Personally though, makokonsensya ako.
Ann’s last blog post..Non Sum Qualis Eram
November 30th, 2007 at 23:03
to Jon Limjap:
You’d be surprised at what this little philosophical experiment that I posted was used for. I’ll just post about it maybe next week. I want more readers to post their views on this before I write more about it.
But, yes, I agree. Being famous should not make the violinist any more special. Nor does his apparent helplessness make Dick more responsible for his death.
November 30th, 2007 at 23:10
to JM:
“I’m assuming that anyone who comes to the sixth level is assumed to be a volunteer, and you couldn’t blame the doctors for mistaking him for a volunteer.”
— but, of course, even if Dick was unconscious, all the more reason that doctors shouldn’t have hooked him to a patient and should have instead tried to look for identification and phone numbers by which they could reach his relatives.
What’s another mind-boggler is that couldn’t they have shifted the patient to another volunteer if Dick said he didn’t want anything more to do with the experiment?
I bought this at Powerbooks Trinoma, in the Philosophy section of the books. If I remember it right, it’s only about P590.
You’d be surprised at what this little philosophical experiment was used for. Well, not exactly the whole story but the essence of it. I’ll be posting about it maybe next week. I want to give chance to more readers to react on it!
November 30th, 2007 at 23:13
to Ann:
You should have bought it the first time you saw it. Hehe. It’ll give you lots of hours of mind bending. I love it! Worth your money! Go back and buy a copy.
“First of all the “hospital” is very irresponsible for hooking up a man who has no records and without a signed consent form. ”
— Yup, I agree. It’s always the first thing that should be accomplished before a procedure is undertaken, except for some emergencies.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:37
Woah. This initially seemed like a twisted ethical issue to me. My initial response was even if I mistakenly and stupidly went to that restricted floor, they shouldn’t just attack my conscience and make me give up a big part of my life (ok, 9 months).
Pero, ako rin, I would feel guilty, (1) assuming that the procedure is safe (or I wouldn’t really die from it)… (2) I don’t care how important he is to other people but I’m thinking what if that person is someone really close to me? (3) we are partly responsible for everyone, and greatly for our actions (4) and because I don’t totally discount the destiny factor — what if I was meant to be at that place at that same time? What if I was really the only hope for him at that time? (5) Refusing to take action is just as evil as committing one.
Wah. Pero oo nga doc tess, bakit hindi nalang ibang volunteers? Yun nalang muna. Hehe… And hirap kapag biglaan.
kathy’s last blog post..Dreams do come true
December 7th, 2007 at 19:07
[...] Experiment Is All About Published December 7th, 2007 in Religion and Philosophy. Remember the little philosophical experiment I posted several days [...]