The basic assumption of the trolley problem is that we are likely to intervene in a situation where our involvement results in the death of one person versus several people. My first issue with the trolley problem is that it assumes I would have the understanding to intervene in that case. In most real life cases, we don’t have the knowledge or foresight to intervene or we have no idea what the real outcome will be if we do intervene. The trolley problem assumes all five people will be killed.

It also assumes the people stuck on the trolley tracks are the same nameless, faceless bodies. Assuming that we had the knowledge and foresight to intervene, what if the one person was a baby and the five were old people? What if the one were a famous celebrity and the five were homeless? In these cases, we’d be much less likely to intervene if we knew how, especially if the one person were a relative and the five were not.

I recently listened to the Ethics Matters podcast about torture. In that podcast, Professor Doug Maclane explains why these contrived situations do not serve us well in matters of ethics.