Chapter 50 Self Quiz

. The trolley problem is

a real case taken from history.

a problem that might arise in real life.

a hypothetical moral problem.

a story ripped from the headlines.

. The case involving a trolley and the case involving a surgeon are philosophically interesting because they

seem importantly similar but deliver different intuitive verdicts.

reveal a consistence in our moral judgments.

demonstrate that Europeans and Americans have similar views about morality.

seem importantly different but deliver the same intuitive verdicts.

. Thomson reports that when she asks people about the trolley case, most people feel that

the driver should not turn the trolley.

it is permissible to turn the trolley.

they have no idea what the driver should do.

it is morally wrong to turn the trolley.

. Which of these might be a reason to turn the trolley?

The trolley driver has a special duty to keep workers safe.

Making an active choice is to kill is morally worse than passively allowing deaths.

Each person’s life is equally sacred and valuable.

Saving five lives is the better choice, even at the cost of one person’s death.

. The surgeon case is similar to the trolley case, because both cases are about a choice to

save a life, by any means necessary.

take a life, supposedly “for good reasons.”

actively take a life versus passively allow people to die.

take one life to allow five people to live.

. In the surgeon case, the doctor has the option of harvesting valuable organs from a patient who will die anyway.

True

False

. Although both stories are about sacrificing one life to save five lives, most people have different feelings about the trolley case and the surgeon case.

True

False

. According to Thomson, most people think the surgeon should be allowed to sacrifice a healthy patient if it was 100% guaranteed that he would be able to save the lives of five other people with the organ transplants.

True

False

Quiz Content