Law and Moral Dilemmas

Authors

Bert I. Huang, Columbia Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

2016

Abstract

A runaway trolley rushes toward five people standing on the tracks, and it will surely kill them all. Fortunately, you can reach a switch that will turn the trolley onto a side track – but then you notice that one other person is standing there. Is it morally permissible for you to turn the trolley to that side track, where it will kill one person instead of five? Is it not only morally permissible, but even morally required? This classic thought experiment is a mainstay in the repertoire of law school hypotheticals, often raised alongside cases about cannibalism at sea, tossing people from overcrowded lifeboats, or destroying buildings to save a city from fire.

Disciplines

Law | Transportation Law

Comments

The Trolley Problem Mysteries by F.M. Kamm, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. xi, 270, $29.95.

Recommended Citation

Bert I. Huang, Law and Moral Dilemmas, 130 Harv. L. Rev. 659 (2016).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/626