To be clear, I’m not suggesting we do what I’m about to propose, I just think it’s an interesting ethical/moral thought experiment.

If we could find a lot of people who want to unalive themselves, and say to them: there’s been a disaster and there are a lot of people who are stuck (e.g. a mine collapse, or 9/11 or something like that) and it’s a dangerous situation for rescue workers to go into, since you don’t care if you die we’re gonna send you in… would it be an ethical or moral thing to do? To ask or make people who don’t care if they live or not, to go into a situation that there’s a known high risk that they won’t survive?

(Also, I not asking wether it is a good idea to send such people in or wether it would be effective — I’m only interested in the ethics/morality of such an idea)

  • Pomal@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    3 days ago

    In each instance, end was near but the drive to live was not gone. It’s just surrender to the fact that someone had to make it happen.

    • Cyril Strobe@sh.itjust.worksOP
      1·
      3 days ago

      Yes, although there is one interesting point about the K-19: according to the captain of the sub, when the disaster began, he did began to experience suicidal thoughts:

      “At one point, I thought of going down to my cabin, drawing my pistol and finishing all my problems at once,” he said.

      What I find interesting is that though he continued on, he didn’t voluntarily go into the reactor himself, instead sending ‘volunteers’ in.

      Source: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-03-mn-8123-story.html