Archive for September 7th, 2011

Give Them Shelter

Posted September 7, 2011 By Dave Thomer

In the ethics class I’m teaching, I’m trying to set up the idea that sometimes we have to make choices that will lead to the least-bad outcome. Such choices are where our values really get tested, because there’s no easy or safe choice. To think through the problem, I modified an exercise given to me by a colleague. Here’s what I gave the students:

Remember, you are likely to have to spend a lot of time in the shelter before the radiation levels go down. It could be years before the area is safe. These people are asking to enter:

• A Catholic priest, age 60, Hispanic male
• A medical researcher, age 40, African-American female, lawyer’s wife
• A lawyer, age 42, African-American male, medical researcher’s husband
• The researcher and lawyer’s daughter, age 16
• The researcher and lawyer’s son, age 10
• A commercial fisherman, age 36, Caucasian male
• A social worker, age 50, Caucasian female
• A college student, age 20, Hispanic female
• A musician, age 38, African-American male
• A city councilwoman, age 42, Japanese female
• A registered nurse, age 29, Saudi Arabian male
• A restaurant cook, age 34, African-American female

Choose which eight people you would save and briefly say why. Do not consult with anyone about your answers.

We got a really good discussion out of it, and it was interesting to hear the students discuss and disagree about what was important. Keep a family together? Select people with useful expertise? Save the young? Save the elderly?

Next we’re going to look at Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron to discuss whether equality is always a good thing.