fandomhigh | Ethics Class - catch up session, 10am-4pm

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ethics

Ethics Class - catch up session, 10am-4pm

Tara posts the class list on the door, as promised in her email, detailing the gaps in each student's participation. Penned at the bottom in a neat round hand is a note: Some of you may have discussed these with TAs out of class. Please inform me if this is the case.

She looks happy and well-rested as she sets up discussion stations around the room.

[ooc: I'll put names on the comment threads for the people who haven't completed them, rather than listing up here. Because I'm odd that way.]

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"What right do you have to save anyone? Without their express, explicit permission, how can you be sure you're doing the right thing? Come up with a scenario where intervening to save someone would be the wrong thing to do."

For Allie, Angel, Archie, Beka, Bridge, Buffy, Callisto, Chiana, Chloe, Evie, Faith, John Sheppard, Lindsey, Lisa, Parker, Piper, Quinn, Six, Stark, Sydney and Veronica.

Well, I guess you really never can be completely sure whether or not saving somebody's the right thing to do. I mean, say I somebody was planning on...on jumping off a cliff. ~~I wasn't~~ They weren't trying to kill themselves, just prove that they were...were still alive, but there was a chance of getting killed that way. If somebody managed to prevent it, ~~I'd~~ they'd most likely try to do it again, but maybe with something more...more dangerous that *would* kill me them. I that case, wouldn't saving them the first time around just...just make the situation worse?

"I suppose it would be wrong to go back in time to save someone who was meant to die because it could disturb the order of the universe... or something. Otherwise, I think it's okay to save anyone's life, even if they haven't given permission."

"Okay," Tara nods, musing on this. "Is there a time limit? For example, going back a year in time would obviously change things significantly... but what about going back thirteen seconds? Is there an order of magnitude that needs to be hit before it becomes unethical?"

Archie doesn't say anything, but he raises his head and looks at Piper with a curious and slightly haunted expression, nodding wordlessly.

"Not everyone wants to be saved. Some people willingly seek their own destruction. Interfering with a person like that's attempts to fufil their goal would be the wrong thing to do."

Stark sighed and stared at his paper for a long moment before attempting an answer.

If whatever it was they were being saved from was really going to help others, then saving them might not be right. If they were going to do something that would save everyone else, even if it meant they would die, it wouldn't be right to stop them. No matter how much it hurt to let them go, it wouldn't be right.

This answer's less messy-looking.

It's like that case with that girl that was brain dead and her parents and the president said they should keep her alive for some reason or another even though she wouldn't have a normal life again or anything. If she wasn't going to be able to do anything ever again and wouldn't even be their daughter anymore it really was kinda pointless to waste all that money and valuable news coverage. It's not insensitive, it's true, okay?

Buffy tightens her hands into fists and closes her eyes. She swallows and then tries to relax her hands.

"Tara...I...I can't...not this one. I'll take a failing grade..."

"Okay," Tara replies softly, resting a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "That's okay. Don't worry about it."

"In the case of someone dying painfully, I think everything should be tried before letting them go." Parker's lips thin. "But if it gets pointless, and causes more pain, and they don't want it, I suppose... I suppose that's one time when you don't have the right to keep them."

Her voice gets quieter. "But in cases aside from long-term illness and pain, I'm not sure there *is* a scenario where you have to take the endangered person's decision over your own. I was going to say that if it would mean costing other people's lives over saving one person, that would be the time to step back. You don't take everyone else down because you want one person to live... But if then again, maybe you at least *try*." She rubs her head. "I'm sorry, I'm getting lost in the possibilities here."

"You don't have the right. Like, sure, if I see someone struggling and getting attacked by a vampire, then sure, I'll do something unless I have a reason not to. But if they're like, enjoying it and telling me to go away, then why should I help them? It's not helping at that point, it's putting your own need to feel special and satisfied over what other people want to do.

It's their life. Not my problem, what they want to do with it."

((*kicks lj* I definitely submitted a comment here,))

"I think we all have the right to keep someone alive. Even if they don't want to live...life is sacred. Death is something we should attempt to avoid." She pauses. "Um, I don't know when it would be wrong to save someone. If they were a criminal? And were in trouble because of their crime? But even then, I think we should do all in our power to save them."

"If saving someone is only going to cause them more harm, you shouldn't do it. If they've got no quality of life or something like that, then saving them isn't going to be the right thing to do."

Bridge ponders the euthanasia question from earlier.

"While I don't think I could kill anyone, I also don't think I'd feel right about keeping them alive if they didn't want to be. So, I think in a situation where the person wants to die, saving them would be wrong."

Veronica writes:

If someone's life is in danger, I cannot imagine *any* circumstance where it would be wrong to intervene.

Allie writes:

I want to be a doctor some day and, in that capacity, would be sworn to uphold life. There is no situation I can think of that would keep me from saving someone's life if I was in a position to do so.

Lisa skips this question, too uncomfortable to go there.

If you have more information than they do it's the right decision to make. Not everyone is fully aware of the danger they're in.

However sometimes you have to let someone die for the good of the world.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ethics Class - catch up session, 10am-4pm

When to Intervene?

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