COLLEGETOWN—Mid-Thursday afternoon, collegetown driver Alex Harmon’s usual commute was interrupted by an age-old moral quandary.
“It was a totally average day; I was driving my dad’s Porsche down College Avenue at an easy 170 miles per hour,” stated Harmon. “All of a sudden, five pedestrians appeared on the crosswalk just past the red light I was about to run, and one appeared on the sidewalk to the left. For a moment, I was paralyzed with indecision. I mean, I had to hit someone with my car–I wasn’t gonna just wait for the light to turn green–but the question was, who?”
Ethics professor Christopher Acosta weighed in on Harmon’s dilemma. “There are really endless versions of the exact problem Mr. Harmon faced, for example, what if the five people on path one are all organ donors and their deaths could save twenty five people? What if the solo pedestrian is someone he knows? What if the five pedestrians are low value women, and the solo pedestrian is a high value man?”
Ultimately, Harmon opted to hit the turn signal, hit the gas, and hit the solo pedestrian. When asked for an explanation, he stated, “Although I recognize that there are serious ethical objections to act utilitarianism, I must ultimately conclude that my decision to minimize the amount of suffering plainly caused by my action was the choice most consistent with my moral philosophy.”