Someone you love has been taken hostage and you are the only one who can rescue them. The hostage takers have given you 2 choices.......rob a bank with the assurance of being caught and spending years in prison.....or....... betray your country with the possibility of getting caught next to nothing. Tough situation.....what would be your first moral and ethical impulse?
2007-11-09 02:09:42 · 15 answers · asked by jidwg 6 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Jeepers....this scenario was unrealistic of course...highly exaggerated for the sole purpose of getting everyone to think......what is more valuable to you....your personal freedom or the moral high ground. Even if I don't love or agree with my government all the time, my country is not the same as my government.....my country is the people who live there and the principles on which it stands......so personally, I'd rob the bank and take the prison sentence.
2007-11-10 17:44:46 · update #1
Nothing is impossible when you can out think your opponent. I would employ every resource available to me (and even open the gates of Hell if I had to!) to get this loved one back and still have my life intact. Then, I would target the hostage takers one by one until they were "satisfactorily" dealt with. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned....or so they say ;o)
2007-11-09 02:18:03 · answer #1 · answered by Foff 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Given the thoroughly unrealistic scenario you've presented, I'd go for the bank. During the robbery, I'd cunningly betray my colleagues in crime and cover my disappearance with a blinding explosive diversion---then I'd secretly go after the terrorists/spies/whatever and rescue my loved-person. Presumably, there would be a romantic epilogue in some removed , yet comfortable location.
In real life, terrorists don't give you options, you are never the only one who can rescue the hostage, and the odds are good that both you and your hostage are dead meat.
So much for the moral dilemma.
2007-11-09 19:01:02 · answer #2 · answered by Palmerpath 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'll do nothing.
I won't give in to a kidnapper. I'll call their buff. If I end up in prison, where does that leave the one I love? I certainly won't feel better after betraying my country (and the one I love because he is a citizen of the country too).
I may come across like i am cold, but i'll not do anything. What's the guarantee that even after i do their bidding that they'll let my loved on go? I'm not sooooo naive to turst a kidnapper. once i do what they want, and even if they released him, what's stops them from doing it all over again when they need another sucker to rob another bank?
2007-11-09 10:21:36 · answer #3 · answered by Ayo A 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
In my opinion - and you are right - this is really a tough call -
We have a moral obligation to protect our fellow citizens. As painful at it may be that would be my first choice.
My reasoning is that I would NOT be the only one who could rescue them. In the real world today there are people who are trained at, and specialize in, hostage rescue. Some of them are mercenaries, to be sure, and some of them belong to our city, state, and federal law enforcement agencies whose job it is to handle situations like this.
2007-11-09 10:23:22 · answer #4 · answered by jim_elkins 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My first impulse is to reject their 'choices'. Those are the ones that they gave me. I might say I'll do the betrayal of my country, but then advise the powers that be what is happening, and hopefully (God only knows, since our security services aren't the smartest kids on the block at times) I'd be able to dupe the kidnappers, get my loved one back and see them tried for their acts.
Regardless of what happens after that, I'd have to really know that it their choice to kidnap and harm, not my decision to try to foil them that is the reason my loved one is in danger.
Peace
2007-11-09 21:09:40 · answer #5 · answered by zingis 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nothing tough, nothing moral, nothing ethical. Betray my country. Heck, the politicians are doing this on a daily basis and they dont even have to save a loved one.
2007-11-09 10:56:05 · answer #6 · answered by Iniaz 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Bank, you are not legally responsible, if you can prove the hostage taker forced you.
2007-11-09 12:08:08 · answer #7 · answered by Me again 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would rob a bank.Then when my love one got out they could come get me out and tell every one why I robed a bank.
2007-11-09 10:19:28 · answer #8 · answered by Girl with camera. 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
think of some way other than the two options to get the person back
2007-11-09 10:18:52 · answer #9 · answered by BlueBeyond122 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'd pull a Bruce Willis on their ***
2007-11-09 10:18:19 · answer #10 · answered by Mr. Vincent Van Jessup 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋