Would YOU kill the baby?

[guesswho]

Is it an ugly baby?

It's male with tits.

The obvious answer is...you'd have to experience the situation to know what you'll do.

Sitting in front of a computer is very different from actually being there, with your body pumping fear and adrenaline.

 

[Beorn]

People tend to default toward inaction in situations like this as a way of absolving themselves of responsibility in the outcome. "If everyone in the house is killed," they think, "at least it's not my fault."

If there's absolutely no way to shut the brat up, and if there's a high chance that it'd continue to cry, and if there's a high chance of them stopping by my house, then I'd kill the thing.

I find it interesting that you feel the need to denigrate the baby by calling it a "brat." Perhaps it is an attempt to transfer culpability. You then dehumanize the baby by referring to it as a "thing."

The question isn't whether you would kill a thing.

Would you murder a human?

I believe if this was a home invasion in the US you would be charged with murder. Traditionally duress is not a defense for the intentional killing of a human.

 

[Sniffles]

It's an old trick Beef.

 

[Beorn]

If I was holding a crying baby and surrounded by irritable Nazis, I think the last thing I would think to do in a moment like that would be to be digging out my copy of Summa Theologica. "THOMAS! HELP ME!"

But, isn't this why we discuss these things? So that we might cultivate a sense of right and wrong hoping that when the test comes we might rise above our basic emotional response and act morally? Isn't it our reliance on principles and not instincts that make us human and distinguish us from animals?

Evil prevails where people are controlled by fear and not by principles.

Thinking about principles can lead to acting on them. Bonhoeffer was writing his book, Ethics, when he was imprisoned by the nazis.

We have heard that his fellow prisoners were deeply impressed by the calmness and self-control which Bonhoeffer displayed even in the most terrible situations. For instance, during the very heavy bombings of Berlin, when the explosions were accompanied by the howling of his fellow prisoners, who beat with their fists against the locked doors of their cells clamoring to be transferred to the safe bunkers, Bonhoeffer stood, we have been told, like a giant before men.

Please, do not mistake my high expectations here as extreme condemnation of those who would fall short. In choice of evil situations I don't think punishment should be harsh on the guilty.

 

[Within]

If it was mine by blood, no. Otherwise I would consider it.

 

[lowtech redneck]

Would you murder a human?

And for most people, its a matter of killing a fucking baby, whose lives we are instinctually inclined to prioritize over adult lives. If we were talking about a hysterical adult in this situation, I would be willing to contemplate deliberate murder.

 

[Amargith]

If it was mine by blood, no. Otherwise I would consider it.

Are you male?

 

[rav3n]

Jonathan Swift had something there.

Such a modest proposal.

No, I honestly don't think that I could kill the baby. Now if it were an adult who wouldn't shut up, I'd kill it just to shut it up, Nazis or not.

 

[nonsequitur]

If you let someone else kill the baby, it's abandoning the responsibility of the decision. It's basically believing that killing the baby is the right thing to do, but that you don't want to have to deal with the guilt. It's the most selfish choice.

If that was the situation, I'd kill the baby first in the most crazed way possible (so as to ensure that others don't dare to stop me), then kill myself. That way, others are absolved of the guilt. And I won't have to live with having to make that decision.

 

[FDG]

I really wouldn't be able to kill a baby without being haunted by nightmaters forever. So, I voted no.

 

[Sniffles]

Are you male?

Why would that matter?

 

[Amargith]

Just curious
It seemed a very male response in a way. Biologically, they're very much wired to protect their own offspring. That doesn't mean they go around harming other people's children..but protecting their own genes is usually present in their own genetic make-up, perhaps even more so than with women. I know several men around me who have children and love them dearly, but made it clear that they'd never have had children if they wouldn't have been their own offspring. My own SO isn't opposed to children..but they better be his

 

[Sniffles]

So males are more protective of their offspring than females eh?

 

[EcK]

i wouldn't let the damn thing in, it's not like you can say it's jewish. It'd be dumb to keep it rather than give it to some farmer in the first place

 

[ZPowers]

Depends how I feel about the baby.

Ah, the old "In my defense, that baby was kind of a dick" argument.


Also, I think the point here is to have a situation where the ONLY options are kill baby or risk more lives. Arguing semantics, details, or alternate strategies is not valid.

SO: The baby is there, and it is crying. That much has occurred. You can't muffle it, because you have crazy blade hands like in Edward Scissorhands. Also your feet are like that and all the other people are unconscious or can't reach the baby. And there's no alcohol to feed it.

Really, my answer depends: How likely is the baby to cause us to be found? How many people do I save?

 

[MacGuffin]

I saw this episode of M*A*S*H!

It was a chicken.

 

[Beargryllz]

i wouldn't let the damn thing in, it's not like you can say it's jewish. It'd be dumb to keep it rather than give it to some farmer in the first place

But we aren't asking whether or not you would "let the damn thing in". We created a scenario in which the baby is already present, and then pose a question of whether you will kill it, or allow everyone else to die.

 

[Qlip]

I still think it's better going out trying to kill Nazis than living by killing babies.

 

[Unkindloving]

I feel murderous rage toward babies that are compromising my entertainment in a movie theater. One compromising my life in a nazi situation would surely meet its end.

 

[Amargith]

So males are more protective of their offspring than females eh?

Not in the least...you know what they say about mothers and protecting their young. But in contrast, most women might want a child of their own but tend to be open to adoption if that's not an option as they still have that need to nurture (talking very generalized here!). Men seem to be more specific about the children they emotionally invest in to protect...namely their own.