Thursday, June 26, 2008

Moral Question #2364125 - The Reason I Don't Steal

Situation: Someone you care about is on life support. The hospital is going to unplug them unless you make a financial contribution immediately. If you leave the hospital they will unplug them and they will die. You have no money. No one in the hospital has any money to give you.

You look down and in a stoke of luck there is 4 ATM Cards with Receipts and PIN Numbers there. You could use a card and get the money to save your friend.

Couple of things

1.)These are special cards and you can only take out all of the money that is in the balance and the hospital will get it.

2.) You can't deposit it back into the account.

3.) You have no money to payback the person you are stealing it from and you cant get it any. What you take from them they will never get back.

4.) If you explain to any of them why you took their money your loved one will die.

5.) The hospital will take any amount.


The receipts

1.) $20 - Dollars

2.) $200.00 Dollars

3.) $2000.00 Dollars

4.) $2,000,000.00 dollars

Which ATM Card do you use? (Pick one before you read on)

Would it make a difference if you knew something about the people you were stealing from?

1.) Mother of 3 children, recovering drug addict, that $20 is all she has for an entire month to feed her children. One of them is terminally ill.

2.) Family of five the father has been displaced at work the mom works two jobs. Children are all under 8 years in age. If they don't send that two hundred dollars into the mortgage company the will be evicted and turned out on the street.

3.) A single man has just saved up the necessary money for a life saving organ transplant. If he doesn't have the money for the surgery he will die.

4.) A struggling small business owner whose wife has terminal breast cancer. The money is the entire payroll for his thirty employees and all business expenses. If he doesn't have the money his business will go under and this 30 employees will not get paid. Some of them are in dire situations similar to the families above.

Do you take the money?

Who do you take it from?

Why?

12 comments:

Rocketstar said...

I need more info.

How old is my friend that is going to die?

How much money do I need to sdave him?

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't take any of it, since this is a life v. life argument. I wouldn't want to value one person's life over the other. If it was my child, however, I'd probably choose #2. Families have one and a half years to live on a property, mortgage free, before they have to vacate premises according to Minnesota law--utilities are also paid.

So while that's a loophole, that group of people can get much more help than the others, one of whom has probably tapped out her welfare resources, and the others where it is a life/death situation.

Kyra said...

I agree, you cannot wager life against a life.

Not to mention, on life support it's against the law for the hospital to pull the plug without 1) Permission/court order, or 2) the person's living will desires that outcome.

What you are asking is akin to "would you let your child be brutally murdered in front of you, or kill an innocent 75 yr old man who is sitting next to you. What do you do?" No one ever has the right to take a life, and impossible situations are just that. This isn't about stealing, it's about deciding fates, and therefore an unfair question overall.

h*dizzle said...

where do you get these thought provoking blogs! mine are so random but yours are so deep and philosophical!

h*dizzle said...

where do you get these thought provoking blogs! mine are so random but yours are so deep and philosophical!

lauren said...

Can I leave the hospital, panhandle for an hour and then come back?

Maggie Moo said...

I know this is going to sound bad, but who is the person I care about? HOw old are they, what is our relationship, who is depending on them?

scargosun said...

F U

For making me feel like sh!t

Cathy De Los Santos said...

i wouldn't take any of it becasue if it's their time to go as much as u don't want it to happen it's their time to go, and if your stealing money obviously what comes next will be jail and i'm not the jail type person. Stealing is wrong, it's not something anyone should do no matter what. Because in the end someone gets hurt, even if it's not you or your friend someone does.

dm said...

Why is the hospital going to unplug them, without a living will, that's illegal, one phone call to a lawyer and you have a court injunction forbidding the hospital from doing anything.

Michelle's Spell said...

This is a tough one! I guess I'd probably go with situational ethics -- for some people, I'd do anything and for others, well, not as much. Yikes -- scary to think about!

Ma said...

fuk that - what kind of sick hospital IS this.... I hate to say it, but people you love are gonna die - everyone dies..... I would not steal to keep someone alive, I stopped stealing in Jr High.... it's stupid. When a person's time is up - it's up.... so sad, time to move on now - sorry

these kind of stupid questions make me crazy, it's never gonna happen and I'm not gonna waste my time trying to determine what I would do - especially when I would do none of the above

but I still love you brian... hehe, I know you're just trying to make us think and all