Ethical Dilemma from Grade School
Back in grade school, I remember one time we had brainstorming and problem-solving exercises. I think it was in history class, but who knows.
Anyway, outside of class, I thought up some ideas of my own. I think they were for my newsletter I was doing at the time; I had subscribers numbering perhaps under a dozen, but I wrote for an audience of hundreds. At any rate, today I remembered one of those ethical questions. I don’t know if I ever published it, but here is basically what it was…
On an island, a snake is found whose venom can cure all major diseases. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes–all cured. The venom cannot be synthesized, so the only way to produce it in quantity is to raise these snakes. The problem is that the snakes are man-eating snakes, and cannot survive on any other food source. What would you do?
Bear in mind that I came up with this in grade school. Realistically, a snake that feeds only on humans probably isn’t very likely at all. What would there be that the snake would be unable to get from wild hogs or another large mammal? And, even if it was something specific to humans, surely we could come up with a dietary supplement for the snakes. Maybe feed the snakes pigs and supplement it with whatever is needed from the human body. Maybe there would be volunteers to give blood or bone marrow or whatever it is the snakes need. But, let’s put all that aside, and go back to the grade school mentality…
What we have is a snake. It’s venom is a cure-all, but the snakes can only survive on a diet of live people. Not cadavers, live. So, the only way to keep these snakes alive would be to toss live people into their cages as food. Presumably, these snakes were discovered on a populated island, but where the people were perhaps very primitive and not in contact with the civilized world.
What would you do? Would you let the snakes go extinct, and keep samples of the venom for study, in the hopes that one day it might be synthesized? Or, do you feed the snakes convicted murderers and so forth, even though they’ll have deaths that are far from humane?
And, if you oppose feeding live people to the snakes, what if people in other countries weren’t as unwilling as you? Would you buy the cure-all venom from them if they offered it for sale? How would your decision be affected if you or a loved one were dying from something the venom could cure?
I would feed the death-row criminals to the snakes. However, I would first inject them so that they would die humanely before being eaten by the snake. And I would get a lot of funds raised so that work could be done on the synthesizing of the venom or the study of it so we could learn to reproduce it and not have to resort to feeding people to the snakes for too long.
While perhaps the idea of a man eating snake is a little unlikely, I don’t think the premise is too alien. What if instead of a snake, the cure all venom was something that could only be created by taking the life of a human and using part of their body to make it. This kind of idea really does create a moral dilemma.
You lost me at the word SNAKE.
*runs away terrified*
I am running with Meleah !!!!!!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I would create genetic hybrids
Betcha people would donate their bodies in the name of science. I’d donate my dead body to a snake if it produced a cure all venom. Like on the back of your license…you could be an organ and tissue donor and then give the rest to the snakes. Plus, you could freeze the excess because snakes can totally be trained to eat frozen food…I mean, you’d have to warm it up and all but you know…it doesn’t have to be fresh necessarily.
This is a really creepy question and I totally jumped on it. Now I’m creepy. Great.
It wouldn’t be a problem at all in reality. I know the conditions you lay out are a little different, but here are a few facts.
1) Snakes will eat frozen/thawed food so when someone dies they could be iced and then defrosted when the time came.
2) Snakes can’t catch human diseases so even if the people died of a horrible illness it wouldn’t effect the snake
3) A snake large enough to eat a human would produce copious amounts of venom so you wouldn’t need all that many of them.
4) Many people would gladly give their dead bodies for the sake of science. Just like they give their organs.
But suppose they had to eat live people and nothing dead for the venom to be effective… Rapists, murderers, pedophiles, people who choose to end their own lives (euthanasia), etc would all be viable candidates. Figure one meal every 2.5 to 3 weeks for the snake. You wouldn’t need tons of them.