Choose the following Ethics Problems and answer it to the very best of your ability. These questions are fairly complex, and will require a minimum of 3 full pages (double spaced, not including the ti

Choose the following Ethics Problems and answer it to the very best of your ability. These questions are fairly complex, and will require a minimum of 3 full pages (double spaced, not including the title/header) pages to answer completely.

Chapter 7: Ethics problem - Who gets to stay on the lifeboat? on Page 136

Ecologist Garratt Hardin (1915-2003) proposed the metaphor of a lifeboat to help us think about resource distribution in a world fast approaching limits.

 Garret Hardin, “Lifeboat Ethics: The case Against Helping the Poor,” Psychology Today, September 8, 1974, 38-43.

Hardin’s view, called “Lifeboat Ethics,” looks at trends such as population increase, resource depletion, and the carrying capacity of land to make a case against helping the poor. Although we all have basic needs, some people must be denied. Lifeboats, metaphorically, refer to wealthy nations.

Consider the example of a lifeboat with a capacity of 50 persons. The ship is sinking and there are not enough lifeboats. You are safe on a lifeboat filled to capacity, but there are still 100 people in the water. What do you do? All need to get in the lifeboat, or they will not survive. But, the lifeboat is full. Who should stay and who should go, and why? What criteria do we use to make decisions in a world of limited resources? Do an internet search on lifeboat ethics and also see Alfred Hitchcock’s film Lifeboat.