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Letter: Trolley problem has a rather selfless solution

Published 2 October 2024

From Terry Klumpp, Melbourne, Australia

There was a mention of the classic trolley problem in your look at a new book on morality. This left me wondering whether – rather than choose to push an innocent bystander into the path of the imaginary, out-of-control tram to save five people – you could, were you a paragon of virtue, instead throw yourself into the path of this runaway vehicle to use your own body as the trolley brake and save the five lives. But who among us would be so selfless(31 August, p 28)?

Issue no. 3511 published 5 October 2024

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