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)

  • Cyril Strobe@sh.itjust.worksOP
    85·
    2 days ago

    In addition to this, I think the concept is cruel. If one supports the ability of those who want to die to do so, they should be able to do it with dignity and not risking a painful death or surviving with debilitating injury.

    TL;DR to be honest, that last paragraph was all I was asking about. Thanks for sharing your view.

    • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      I don’t think the people who are focusing on why it’s a bad idea are ignoring the focus on ethics, tbh. It’s unethical to do this because it puts others at risk too.

      • Cyril Strobe@sh.itjust.worksOP
        13·
        2 days ago

        I know they aren’t, I’m just curious about the ethics/morals of such an idea is all. Obviously if it was put into practice, the effectiveness would undoubtedly need to be considered. However, as I said before, this isn’t being put into practice — it’s a discussion on Lemmy.

        • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
          6·
          2 days ago

          Maybe I’m missing your point but I don’t think you quite understand mine: the replies that are saying it would be ineffective are also saying it’s unethical.

          Whereas I focused on it being unethical because it’s cruel to the suicidal person, it is also an unethical practice because it means knowingly using people who are less effective at these tasks, which harms the people depending on the successful completion of the dangerous work.

          • Cyril Strobe@sh.itjust.worksOP
            11·
            2 days ago

            Not at all. Hey, if you can link effectiveness to the ethics, fantastic. All I was saying was I was more focused on the ethics rather than the effectiveness, which I do think is a debate on its own. However, if you can make the case to justify the ethics in relation to the effectiveness, I’ll definitely read it.

            • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
              4·
              2 days ago

              That’s my entire case though: It is unethical to choose methods of rescue or other emergency responses that are less effective than the other available methods.

              • Cyril Strobe@sh.itjust.worksOP
                11·
                2 days ago

                I know. It’s a fair point and I do agree: if you knew it would be less effective than something else, it would be unethical because you’re not doing the best you can, which would put more lives at danger when you could have a higher chance to save more