Co-written by Renée and Chelsea

Is morality strictly a code of conduct, or ¨standards by which one decides what’s right and wrong,¨ as one of our anonymous sources put it? This is what we tasked our student populace to decide. . . .  Is morality always rational? How does one determine what’s right or wrong? How does one know what’s good or bad? Nature does not seem to bother itself with these questions, but we humans do. Morality isn’t clear cut in our world. There are layers and layers of circumstance to try and factor in. How do we choose between beliefs when we are stuck between two…? Most of us would agree that something such as killing is wrong. But, what is the “right” decision, if there even is a right decision? To test your morality, we presented a paraphrased version of the famous “Trolley Problem” and other moral quandaries.

Survey Questions:

*What is morality (to you)?

*There is a runaway unmanned trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person tied down on the sidetrack. You have two options:  Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track. Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person. What is the right thing to do?

*As before, an unmanned trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by pushing a very fat man next to you onto the track, killing him to save five. What do you do?

*As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You can divert its path by colliding another trolley into it, but if you do, both will be derailed and go down a hill, and into a home where there is at least one person living there. Anyone in the home would die. What do you do?

*As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. This time you are on it. You can divert its path, but if you do, you would be killed. What do you do?

*You’re a gifted transplant surgeon who has five patients, each in need of a different organ who will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young vagabond, passing through the city, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, you discover that his organs are compatible with all five of your dying patients. If the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect you and he has no family left. Do you kill that tourist and provide his healthy organs to those five dying people and save their lives?

Aurora: Morality is someone’s personal beliefs. It depends on the person. Survey responses– pull the lever, no push, save the house, save self, no sacrifice patient.

Conner: I don’t know! — no pull, yes push, save the house, kill self, no sacrifice patient.

Leslie: I don’t know. — yes pull,  yes push, yes wipe out the house, kill self, no sacrifice patient. 

Leo: Morality involves the values that I hold subjectively (my value system). — no pull, no push, kill self, save the house, sacrifice the patient.

Anonymous: Morality is making an active choice between right and wrong. — yes pull, yes push, yes sacrifice the house, no don’t sacrifice the vagabond patient.

Josh: Morality is knowing right from wrong. — no pull no push, no don’t wipe out the house and occupants, kill self, no don’t sacrifice vagabond.

Sofia: I don’t know how to define morality. — yes pull, yes push, yes sacrifice house occupants? kill self, sacrifice vagabond (if there are no transplant patients if not, then no).

Dominic: Morality is having morals and would be the extent to which one knows right and wrong. — yes pull, yes push, no don’t sacrifice house occupants, no-kill self, sacrifice vagabond. 

Anonymous: I don’t know about morality. — yes pull, no push, no don’t sacrifice house occupants, kill self, sacrifice the vagabond. There are too many factors and in real life, I don’t know. There is no “right answer.”

Nathan: Morality is the idea of doing “good” things based on your own code. —  yes pull, no push, yes sacrifice the house occupants, kill self, no don’t sacrifice the vagabond.

Anonymous: Morality is the standards by which one decides what’s right and wrong. — pull the lever, no push, don’t sacrifice the house occupants, kill self, no don’t sacrifice the vagabond.

The “moral” of the story is . . . relative . . . .

Morality Editor: Luke Langlois