A ship strikes an iceberg and ten passengers crowd into a lifeboat that is only intended to hold nine. The lifeboat slowly starts to sink because of the extra weight. If it does, all ten passengers will die in the freezing water. The captain considers his choices and decides to force the weakest individual out of the lifeboat. He reasons that if he did nothing, everyone would drown, and this person would have drowned anyway. Others on the lifeboat feel that this choice is morally wrong. They say that if he did nothing, then even if none of them survived, at least no one would be responsible for anyone’s death.
If you were the captain, what would you do?