What are the ethical problems with flipping a coin to decide in the trolley problem?

Question

My understanding is that John M. Taurek suggests that, in the Trolley Problem, we should flip a coin when deciding between saving 5 lives versus 1 life (assuming we do not know any of these people). He says that this gives everyone an equal chance of survival, which is most fair/reasonable to him. This seems inherently wrong to me, but I can't understand why without appealing to utilitarianism. How can I argue against this **without** appealing to utilitarianism?

Answer 1

Great question! The Utilitarian will appeal to the fact flipping the switch to save 5 instead of 1 is likely to maximize happiness, but you can appeal to something else besides the promotion of happiness. For the Utilitarian, saving lives has no inherent moral value; only the promotion of happiness has such value. Saving lives, then, only has moral value to the extent that it promotes happiness. We could, then, be non-utilitarian by thinking that there's inherent moral value in saving the lives of innocent people and thus that there's more moral value in saving 5 innocent people over 1. Alternatively, you could utilize the concepts of a "pro tanto duty" and an "actual duty" to argue that we have the same pro tanto duties to all six individuals and that the pro tanto duties to the 5 outweigh the pro tanto duty to the 1, and so you have an actual duty to save the 5. A pro tanto duty is basically a tentative duty based on certain relevant facts, while an actual duty is, well, an actual duty that's based on all of the pro tanto duties in force. So for example, the fact that you can save any given person involved with no personal risk to your own well-being gives you a pro tanto duty to save that person. Insofar as this fact is true you are obligated to save the person, but you may not be actually so obligated if there are other facts involved that give you other pro tanto duties not to save them (such as the fact that you can save more people instead with no personal risk to your own well-being). In the trolley scenario, there will definitely be conflicting pro tanto duties: your pro tanto duties to save the 5 will conflict with the pro tanto duty to save the 1, and if we assume that these pro tanto duties are all of equal weight, then your pro tanto duties to save the 5 will outweigh the pro tanto duty to save the 1, and so you'd have an actual duty to save the 5.