What would you do?

Question

You have been sentenced to the electric chair by a fiendish political regime that wants to put you in a bind (say because of your religious beliefs), Beside you the person you love best in the world is sitting in another electric chair. You are given the option of pressing one of two buttons. If you press button A, you will die but the other person will live. If you press button B, he (or she) will die and you will live. What would you do?

The question is asked to test the morality of suicide--i.e. whether there are any circumstances whereby suicide may be justifiable and perhaps even commendable.

Oh by the way you have to press one of the buttons. If you don´t you will both die.

Answer 1

If I were in this situation because of my faith then I would choose to die....button A

Heaven will be far greater than any sufferings this world can dish out (Romans 8)

Answer 2

Easy question. If the person I love best in the world were in danger and I could prevent her death, I would eagerly press button A and save her life. It's a matter of values. I value my life, but I value her life more. I would only hesitate out of fear that the fiendish regime might be playing mind games and have rigged the buttons in reverse to torture me.

What would make the question more difficult would be if the person in the second chair were a stranger.

Answer 3

I choose not to decide. I would not push any button. If those are my options, I will allow the fiendish political regime to make that decision, and let both of our deaths be on their conscience.

Your question is really NOT about suicide. If you take the situation about someone running out in the middle of traffic to save the life of a child, and in the process the child lives and I die, I have not committed suicide. I have sacrificed my life on behalf of my brother/sister. Christ said that is the greatest expression of love that some one give their life in exchange for another.

Answer 4

I wouldn't press anything because that is not my decision.

RESPONSE: No, I do not have to press a button, and there is no guarantee that anyone will die! God will decide whether I die, no matter what regime, power, person, etc. is standing over me. I choose to obey Him, and not make a life or death decision for either myself or a loved one.

Answer 5

Dying in the place of someone you love? Yes I would die in their place and let them live. But how hard it will be in those times to live in this world! It is becoming that way, especially in other countries where people are not allowed to even say the word God. That just rips my heart out.....I would never keep GOD silent! In the end it is HE who has the victory and what a glorious day that will be, when we see Him face to face!

Answer 6

Did you get this question from that movie "Saw"???

First of all, it's hypothetical, at best.

Second, it's not suicide, by the intent behind the definition.

Third, why should I push either button? Why not let some monster in a uniform push the button?

Answer 7

If the both of us will die regardless if I don't do anything it is not suicide.

John 15:13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Answer 8

If you want some really good work on rational suicide, type Elliot D. Cohen in the search bar. He wrote some impressive work on the subject and his model rules are now used by the APA.

Answer 9

dying for another, either at your hand or by someone elses is not suicide.

No greater love is there than a man who would lay down his life for a friend.

I would die to save those who I love. God raises the dead, if he so chooses he could send me back to do it all again.

Answer 10

We must go together. I won't press any button. Our love for each other must continue even beyond death. So we die together. By that we spare each other the guilt of murdering someone we loved, genuinely and also of committing suicide.