A year ago, during an interesting Ethics discussion, a group of friends and I spent an hour debating the following question. It was them versus me. Thirteen of them.

You are an FBI agent. You have been kidnapped by a terrorist who planted a bomb under a major metropolis which will go off in about two hours from now unless he aborts the timed explosion. If/when the bomb explodes, ten million presumably innocent people will die. This terrorist brings you to a small room where a little girl is tied up. He hands you a knife. He tells you "If you torture the girl, then I will not set off the bomb."

Having studied psychology intensively for many years, you know for absolute sure that this man is so fanatic that he really will abort the explosion if you torture the girl. Knowing that (as only in a hypothetical situation) your only two choices are to 1.) Torture the girl and save 10 million innocents and probably be lauded a hero or 2.) Not torture the girl and condemn 10 million innocents to certain fiery death, and probably be blamed for it; that you cannot simply turn around and backstab the terrorist (the bomb will still go off; only he knows how to stop it) or pretend to torture the girl (the terrorist is not stupid).

Do you torture the girl or not? Why?

Completely depends on my affiliation with the girl. Do I know her?

Okay. I would have to say, torture the little girl.

No, I'm not heartless all the time.

Just the sake of saving millions is the rational choice then the life of one. And who is to say 'How' I torture the little girl means her death? Perhaps a few lacerations here, a few slices there, some broken bones. Yes, it does sound horrific to those that do not understand the psyche. But, I honestly would have to do that just to save the lives of millions over the brutal torture of just one.

As much as I hate to say this, I would torture the girl. With every fiber of my being, with every breath I would take, for the rest of my life, I would hate it. I would despise myself, hating myself for what I had done. But one life, that of small, innocent girl, no matter how significant, is not worth ten million others. I know she would probably hate me for the rest of her life, if she lived through the torture, and I know I might even be persecuted, but I would know, deep down, it was the right thing to do. She, me, and all others involved would just have to accept it, no matter how deeply scarred we would become. That's just life.

Torturing the girl does not result in her death. It may or may not result in permanent injury. She may or may not sue you later. You do not know her personally. Her race/religion/exact age do not matter.

And, Gogo, my thirteen friends all agreed with you. It was them against me, and believe me when I say they are not only ethical people, but kind and sensitive (usually).

Does any of that change anyone's answer in any way?

I would...

Since you say that it's not possible to attack the dude (my first choice)...

I would pray to God for forgiveness, and slit my own throat. Let the psycho find some other poor basterd to toy with.

:p

That is one seriously messed up scenario.

Yes I would, I would but try victims point of view if the end result the torture was not death. Sure, she might not like I would try to due to here, a few cuts and stabs and a few perverted manuvers if suggested, imagine how she would her looking back in heinsight of the alternative. Imagine live knowing millions died just for so you would not go though a temorary inconveince.; it sure wouln't be a good way to live. as heartless as it seems and as dispite me being an caring sensitive person I cannot confirm whether or not I would take displeaure in doing to actual action itself.

I don't think I would be able to make the decision. I've had a rough life, I've been beaten before and I would NEVER want to inflict that kind of pain onto an innocent person. I think, as much as I would want to to save that many, I wouldn't be able to bring myself to do it. I would hurt myself before I would hurt the girl, as stupid as this may sound... I'd wait for the bomb.

Rozwell, I don't find it stupid at all. In fact, I agree with you.

When debating with my friends, out of fourteen people, I was the only one who said I would not do it. Why? I believe the end never justifies the means. If you torture her, ten million people will live, but at the cost of doing something terribly wrong. You must always ask yourself "at what cost?"

"In order to eradicate evil, we must begin to emulate the evildoer". -Jeff Stetson

I don't think I could find it in me to torture a helpless little girl even if it could save 10 million people (the earth's pretty over-crowded anyway). Either way the ordeal would continuously haunt me with tons of 'what if' questions (what if I had done the other thing) but I could live better knowing that 10 million people died instead of causing pain to that little girl who'd probably be looking at me with a crazy piercing gaze, begging for help. Chances are, the 10 million wouldn't be staring at me and I probably would only have met a few of them in my lifetime (hopefully none of my friends/family); the point is, I could never live my life knowing I tortured a little girl who I know is innocent but I could live my life knowing that 10 million have died who could have been innocent... yeah.

I could stand being shunned by society if it meant keeping a helpless, innocent little girl from being scarred both physically and mentally for the rest of her life. I don't need to be seen as a hero in any way.

Yup. Sorry if that's all jumbled .. and repetitive. Oh and the crowded thing was a ... joke... of sorts.

I agree with Sheena I am a soft hearted B-tard I could never bring myself to hurt a little girl i'm empathetic If I do something anything to someone else somehow I feel as if I waould be doing it to myself I could not and will not ever directly take a life and that's it no ifs ands or buts
((If you've got a negative comment about me being empathetic shut it up your ass))

First of all, if the FBI sent me to stop a bomber, then presumably I must be trained in...uh....bomby stuff. So I would just stab the guy then disarm the bomb.

But since that's apparently not an option, I would pick the torture.

1 in pain < 10,000,000 dead, you see.

Easy, Toruture the girl, then when you made sure he shut off the bomb.(Oh village alchemist the bomb is away in the metropilis which you are presumbly away from it.)I'm like an assasin, kill a few people to save thousands.I could live with it, I'm cold hearted you could say, I'd turn my back on the world if they shunned me about.I'm level-headed and think about the facts, I don't let personal reasons in my desicions.My choices are not clouded or blurred by religion/race/gender/ or anything else of that matter.

I don't know if anyone is aware of this, but I am a student of philosophy and psychology, and as an experiment decided to pose this question to y'all, to see not only what you would say, but why you would say it. I will post many more of these in the future.

I honestly do not know. Despite what we say now, we'll never know until we're in that situation.

I agree with blackfire825 and Village Alchemist entirely. I'd torture the girl(wouldn't go TOO far though, I wouldn't be like my character Cimmaron) and save the ten thousand.

Logically, I would say torture the girl.

But in reality, I doubt I would have it in me to torture her. Maybe, MAYBE, I could kill her, swiftly and painlessly, but I don't have it in me to torture an innocent little girl, unless she told me to, understanding that it was necessary, and the circumstances.

I'd try to kill the guy who did it otherwise. Don't care if I die in the process.

I don't know. Can the girl talk? Does she know what is going on? If so, then I probably would torture her, because she knew the circumstances. If I were the girl, I would tell the FBI agent to torture me as much as they could, in order to save 10,000,000. If I were the agent, I honestly don't know what I would do. It all depends on every little aspect of the circumstance, I guess.

Alright, reading all of these answers, I still hold by my previous decision. Why? Well, call me evil or whatnot, but one girl cannot possibly be as valuable as ten million other people. Women, children, entire families. Would I give them up for one girl? No. Even if she was traumatized for the rest of her life, in the end, I would know I was doing the right thing. Somewhere, in that great big city, there's someone that I'd meet. And I'd look at them, and they might look at me. Whatever they see in me, you know what I'd see in them? Life. The chance to do something great. All of the endless possibilities our daily lives present us with. And then I'd think back to that girl. And you know what I would remember most from her? Life. The fact that she still lives, every day. Breathing, eating, sleeping. Living. Just like that someone I met in the street. And then I'd look around. And I'd see hundreds, maybe thousands of people. And in all of them, I would see life. I would see what I saw in that one person. I would see what I saw in that girl. Not fear, not agony, not death. But life. That, my friends, is why I would torture that girl.