healing moral dilema

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2005-07-08 11:42am

Since we seem to be dealing with moral dilemnas regarding healing someone...

Say you have the "supernatural" power to heal someone. This person has just been in an accident and you have to act soon. No one else can save them in time.

Unfortunately in using your power, you give yourself away as something different (there are lots of bystanders who can act as witnesses).

Now say that people with your power aren't tolerated. For example if you were a character in a fantasy novel, you would be recognised as a witch and killed. If you were in a more modern world, scientists are just waiting to get their hands on you to dissect you to find out what makes you tick. You know of a someone else who demonstrated their powers (benignly I might add) and ended up dead.

There is no way you can possibly disguise the act of what you are doing as in using your power leaves some obvious signs.

So would you heal the person?

This scenario was inspired after rewatching the pilot episode of Roswell.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-07-08 01:10pm

The answer to this for me is that it depends on the person. If it's an absolute stranger, certainly. If it isn't, then I can actually make a judgement about who the person is. If the man is, say, a self-destructive ass hole, or a rapist/murderer/theif, then I wouldn't probably choose to save him. If he was instead a decent person, I probably would elect to save his life.

However, if instead it's in a place where the ability to heal with supernatural abilities will be looked down upon, I may elect not to help the person out, since s/he may resent his/herself for surviving when he shouldn't have.

Kazuaki Shimazaki · Post by **Kazuaki Shimazaki** » 2005-07-08 01:14pm

mr friendly guy wrote:So would you heal the person?

No. His life is not worth mine. That might sound selfish but in the end it comes down to this.

DrkHelmet · Post by **DrkHelmet** » 2005-07-08 01:15pm

Absolutely not. If you give yourself away, then you probably won't be able to help anyone else out in the future. If you die, all future possibilities of healing others die with you.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-07-08 01:19pm

DrkHelmet wrote:Absolutely not. If you give yourself away, then you probably won't be able to help anyone else out in the future. If you die, all future possibilities of healing others die with you.

But if you'd never elect to use that power anyways for the same reason/s you wouldn't in this situation, then what use is that power at all? If you make the decision never to use your healing ability, then the usage of said ability will still be 0.

DrkHelmet · Post by **DrkHelmet** » 2005-07-08 01:21pm

Zero132132 wrote:
DrkHelmet wrote:Absolutely not. If you give yourself away, then you probably won't be able to help anyone else out in the future. If you die, all future possibilities of healing others die with you.
But if you'd never elect to use that power anyways for the same reason/s you wouldn't in this situation, then what use is that power at all? If you make the decision never to use your healing ability, then the usage of said ability will still be 0.

He mentioned about lots of bystanding witnesses in this case. There may be other incidents, in fact it's somewhat likely there will be other incidents where there are no witnesses or far fewer witnesses. Perhaps in another incident, all the witnesses would be your friends and they wouldn't turn you in. In any case, I wouldn't give myself up to certain death to heal a guy, especially when I might still be able to heal others in the future.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-07-08 01:23pm

The death isn't certain, although I do see your point. I still find it unlikely that there would really be a case with no witnesses at all, and even if there are none, there's still the man you're saving. He may not appreciate your abilities.

DrkHelmet · Post by **DrkHelmet** » 2005-07-08 01:27pm

Zero132132 wrote:The death isn't certain, although I do see your point. I still find it unlikely that there would really be a case with no witnesses at all, and even if there are none, there's still the man you're saving. He may not appreciate your abilities.

You do have a point, but the man being healed is more likely to be appreciative than the hundred bystanders that are standing around. Even so, one witness to an event is less likely to turn into burning at the stake than 50 witnesses.

Korvan · Post by **Korvan** » 2005-07-08 02:09pm

Zero132132 wrote:However, if instead it's in a place where the ability to heal with supernatural abilities will be looked down upon, I may elect not to help the person out, since s/he may resent his/herself for surviving when he shouldn't have.

This actually happened to a friend of mine. She was working a fitness club when a man collapsed due to a heart attack. She was able to revive him and all seemed well. The next day, some of his relatives showed up and started yelling at her. Apparently they were complaining that the man she saved now had no soul. An old woman in the group then pulled out a chicken leg and put a curse on my friend.

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2005-07-08 02:11pm

My life is just as valuable as his, and it's my life. If we were talking about many lives, it might be different, but not just one.

Also, if these people are such murderous bigots ( or Dr Mengele wannabes ), how much obligation do I have to help them anyway ? You could make the arguement that the world will be better off without them.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2005-07-08 02:12pm

mr friendly guy wrote:Since we seem to be dealing with moral dilemnas regarding healing someone...

Say you have the "supernatural" power to heal someone. This person has just been in an accident and you have to act soon. No one else can save them in time.

Unfortunately in using your power, you give yourself away as something different (there are lots of bystanders who can act as witnesses).

Now say that people with your power aren't tolerated. For example if you were a character in a fantasy novel, you would be recognised as a witch and killed. If you were in a more modern world, scientists are just waiting to get their hands on you to dissect you to find out what makes you tick. You know of a someone else who demonstrated their powers (benignly I might add) and ended up dead.

There is no way you can possibly disguise the act of what you are doing as in using your power leaves some obvious signs.

So would you heal the person?

This scenario was inspired after rewatching the pilot episode of Roswell.

No. I'm not that selfless, nor can I run that quickly. If it's some random person, then my desire not to die in a horrible manner outweighs any desire to save their life using my superpowers.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2005-07-08 03:09pm

Korvan wrote: This actually happened to a friend of mine. She was working a fitness club when a man collapsed due to a heart attack. She was able to revive him and all seemed well. The next day, some of his relatives showed up and started yelling at her. Apparently they were complaining that the man she saved now had no soul. An old woman in the group then pulled out a chicken leg and put a curse on my friend.

Erm, are you serious?

What did the now soulless man have to say? If I were him, I'd stay well the hell away from such nutty types! Who knows what they'd do since he "had no soul"!

A Big Flying Fish · Post by **A Big Flying Fish** » 2005-07-08 05:02pm

Hmm, it depends. Taking the modern world, is it full blown dissection, or would you settle for a disturbingly large number of scans to determine what's going on in there? If it's dissection, well, sorry injured person. Scans I could do, but I have thing about getting cut apart unless it's consentual.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-07-08 05:10pm

I hadn't thought of it before, but if it were feasable that they could figure out how you'd done what you did through the experimentation and dissection that may follow the initial event, would it be greedy to try and stop them? If many more lives could be aided when they discovered how your ability worked, then is that a possible benefit to you dying?

DrkHelmet · Post by **DrkHelmet** » 2005-07-08 05:13pm

Zero132132 wrote:I hadn't thought of it before, but if it were feasable that they could figure out how you'd done what you did through the experimentation and dissection that may follow the initial event, would it be greedy to try and stop them? If many more lives could be aided when they discovered how your ability worked, then is that a possible benefit to you dying?

mr friendly guy wrote:Say you have the "supernatural" power to heal someone.

Supernatural states that it is not a natural ability, and therefore would have nothing to do with your body or anything else they could dissect.

Mr. T · Post by **Mr. T** » 2005-07-08 06:04pm

Given a choice between my life, and a strangers, I think that I'd go with mine every time. Selfish probably, but it's the way things go.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-07-08 06:07pm

If I dont help a stranger
A- Il'l live (My numero uno concern).
and B- I will have the opportunity to help other people in the future, possibly a close friend or family member.

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2005-07-08 06:34pm

Mr T wrote:Given a choice between my life, and a strangers, I think that I'd go with mine every time. Selfish probably, but it's the way things go.

It's not all that selfish. Like I said, if your life and his have equal value, there is no larger moral reason to choose between the two of you, therefore self interest is a perfectly reasonable motive for a decision.

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2005-07-08 07:13pm

Do my powers have a limit to how much I can heal? I'm not quickthinking enough to figure it out in time to save this person, but could I be vivisected or just cut enough to see inside and keep myself alive through my powers? All I need to do is keep my heart/lungs working long enough to keep my brain online [IE- being alive] to send out the powers, right?

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2005-07-09 08:57am

DrkHelmet wrote:Absolutely not. If you give yourself away, then you probably won't be able to help anyone else out in the future. If you die, all future possibilities of healing others die with you.

I admit I didn't think of this, which is another reason I can justify not helping in this case.

To clarify a few points

1) if you are caught and scientist want to study you, you aren't going to have much in the way of liberty. They would want to know shit loads about you, and they will use the "end justifies the mean" mentality, or justify it as that you aren't human so human rights don't apply. Obviously it pays them to initially keep you alive, but in the end, they may learn much more from cutting you up. Whether they will actually be able to find out how you do what you do is unknown. The point is they will try to experiment on you with or without your permission.

2) you don't know whether this person is a nice guy or a rapist. All you know is that the person has been hurt and help will not arrive in time.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2005-07-09 09:53am

I'd probably try help him, personally. It might turn out later I did the wrong thing, but I would rather err on the side of helping someone, even at cost to myself.I always thought giving something to someone else was considered a higher moral virtue, compared to taking the same for yourself.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-07-11 02:41pm

Assuming this hypothetical scenario takes place in a world where the majority opinion is that supernatural healing is bad, wouldn't that mean that the person you are about to save probably is against your powers? He might be somewhat resentful of your interference. Even so, you should help him. Doing good things for gratitude means that you aren't doing them for the right motivation at all.

Of course, no one is likely to be that righteous and pure, so the most logical choice would be to help him as best you can with out your supernatural powers.

Another option is to pretend you are the Messiah, or some major religious figure come to save the world. People might be more accepting if they associate you with their religion, and not with witchcraft.

dworkin · Post by **dworkin** » 2005-07-12 12:04am

If I can 'fake' the healing I do so.

EG In a modern setting I yell 'I know CPR!' and pound the chest a few times while doing the healing job. I get him sub critical, put them under and then claim 'that's all I can do' and bugger off.

I then emigrate to a country where medical ethics are actually upheld.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-07-13 06:35pm

The OP included the stipulation that there is a clear and undeniable sign left when you heal, so that it cannot be faked.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2005-07-13 07:51pm

How fast does the healing power work, how much/does it tire you, what's the range and is there good cover near by? If all these things are positive for me I'd help the guy. Say if it were an urban environment with large crowds to blend in with, the power was long ranged, didn't leave me sapped and happened quick enough for me to scram before everyone gets a shot at chasing me down I'd do it. But if I had to get right up next to him, I'd be fucking tired afterwards, there was no good cover and it'd take like 5 minutes to work I'd have to say FUCK NO. As the others said, all lives being equal mine is more important to me.

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