You are on a lifeboat along with four others. You have enough food and water to keep only four people alive for the several weeks you expect to be adrift until you float into a shipping lane and can be discovered and rescued. You will all parish if the five of you consume all the food and water. There is the suggestion that one of you should die so the other four can live.
Would you volunteer to commit suicide? Would you vote to have one go overboard if you choose by straws? Would you vote to throw overboard the weakest and least healthy of the five?
If you were on a jury judging the behavior of four who did murder a fifth to stay alive, would you acquit them or convict them of murder?
Would your answer be different if the murdered victim were your son or daughter?
