I was thinking today about the trolley problem. How I think I'd pretty easily choose to save a loved one and doom a trolley full of strangers. I think I'd even pull the lever (as opposed to the scenario where I just leave the level un-pulled). I think I could look each doomed stranger in the face and read their bio and still save the person I loved. I'm not saying it's ethical. And I think if I were elected president or something -- had accepted an office of authority, with others explicitly in my care -- then I might have to act differently. But as just me, now....
I thought about having the friends and loved ones of the people in the trolley looking on, begging me not to pull the lever. They'd all hate me. I understand! But maybe the family of my beloved would be there too, us all personally relieved if morally horrified. Then it became like that: my beloved on the tracks.
Think of the tension that would put on our relationship. The bar for fulfillment would be sky high. I killed all those people for this? I would say to myself as he half listens to what I'm saying.
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