lijnbaansgracht

The building your in is on fire. Do you save one sibling or five strangers?

FitShaced

sibling,what if one of the strangers lit the fire?

concerto

Definately the sibling because you will never be able to live with yourself the rest of your life for letting him/her die.

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poTCat

Depends. Just because they may be a sibling doesn't mean I know them any better than a stranger.

I really don't like questions like this. Although it probably is a heartful attempt to gauge what people would do, there's so much missing that should be known. How old are you and your sibling? How well do you know or like your sibling? Whether there is or not, does it seem like there's a chance the one you don't choose can survive? Do you know anything about the strangers? How urgent does it feel that you need to choose right away?

If it doesn't feel like there's any time to choose, then I wouldn't choose. I'd just let my body do what it needed to. As I mentioned in the gay marriage poll thread, a choice indicates conscious decision making. If there's no time to consciously decide, one would probably be picked by I wouldn't have made a choice. It would have been determined on the spur of the moment, where each and every one of those questions (and undoubtedly more) would play a role in what the outcome is.

But then again, I'm probably overanalyzing it.

JTP

Sibling, no question about it. I would definatley feel for the strangers, but family is family.

WNB

Sibling. The question lacks alot of other info, as potcat said, but just answering it as is, it'd be a sibling. There's no real obligation to help strangers, which is not true with family.

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Freedom is Slavery
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mellow

i'd save the 5 strangers and let the sibling take my place.

Logos

If that is the case, you could escape yourself. Apparently both the sibling and the 5 strangers are incapable of leaving on their own.

I suppose I'd appeal to the 5 strangers to help my sibling while I helped them, if they weren't down for that solution, my sibling and I would boogie on outta there...

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Brother Logos
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Mamabudz

The building you are in is on fire.

Do you save one sibling or five strangers?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your hypothetical begs questions:

Are the other individuals in the building?

Are you able to save yourself?

Who or what caused the fire?

Who are the strangers -- what are their ages, occupations, futures, pasts, and do these facts then have any bearing on the decision maker?

What is your relationship to this sibling?

What is the quality of life of the individuals involved -- will they be saved only to live their lives in a vegetative state due to brain damage?

Are the individuals able to attempt to save themselves and what responsibility do they have?

Will saving them place you in mortal danger?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Given a scenario in which the following were the facts:

You are in a building that is aflame.
In that building are two rooms at either end of a hallway.
Room one has 5 individuals locked inside
Room two has 1 individual locked inside
The individual in Room two is your brother/sister.
The individuals in Room one are the same age as your brother/sister.

You have time to unlock one Room only as the floor is about to be engulfed by toxic smoke which will kill painlessly by smoke inhalation.

Your personal safety is not dependent unlocking either room as there is an exit staircase next to each door.

You do NOT have the option of stoic martyrdom in an attempt to open both doors.

You will have to live with your choices.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personally, I would save the 5 people I don't know personally --
We are all Children of the Earth, we are therefore all Siblings...

...and Death is not the end.

Just my opinion.

Mama Budz

Logos

I'm envisioning that whole process taking place. By the time you got done explaining and figuring all of that out, you'd all be dead. That would be your last thought right before you pull out some cookies pass them around and say see you on the other side...