I was thinking about something related a while ago. I think most people find utilitarian thought experiments about things like kidneys kind of horrifying. But the draft—the idea that young men’s freedom and lives can be claimed by the government for the sake of the nation’s welfare—has been more or less accepted for millennia because it’s how armies function. You could frame it as a utilitarian thought experiment: “Hey, what if the government randomly selected people to go do dangerous and traumatic work, where they might get killed, for the sake of their fellow citizens? It would be for the greater good.” I’d guess most people would find this horrifying.
The basis of the idea is to ask people to imagine if organ donation were expected to save more individuals than it would kill. Hypothetically all individuals are assigned a number and drawn out of lottery when a donation is needed, and are expected to give up their lives to allow two or more people to live.
I was thinking about something related a while ago. I think most people find utilitarian thought experiments about things like kidneys kind of horrifying. But the draft—the idea that young men’s freedom and lives can be claimed by the government for the sake of the nation’s welfare—has been more or less accepted for millennia because it’s how armies function. You could frame it as a utilitarian thought experiment: “Hey, what if the government randomly selected people to go do dangerous and traumatic work, where they might get killed, for the sake of their fellow citizens? It would be for the greater good.” I’d guess most people would find this horrifying.
Sounds a bit closer to the survival lottery:
(Singer wrote a response.)