A Hypothetical Question

Let's just say you were trapped somewhere secluded from the rest of the world with someone you cared about immensely. Why? We'll get to that later. It can be a relative, a friend, a significant other; just someone you love.

Now, let's say that the fate of the world, a number of over seven billion people, depended on whether your loved one lived or died. Why? Because this is a hypothetical question and is likely to never actually ever happen to you.

Remember when I told you to picture yourself secluded and trapped with only yourself and your loved one? Well, the decision now falls solely on you. Only you. If you choose to end your loved one's life, you save a matter of over seven billion people at the price of losing the one person you love the most. If you choose to keep their life intact, then the faith of all humanity would be wiped out leaving just you and the person you love completely alone.

What do you do? Do you surrender your loved one's life for the sake of all humans? If you answer yes, then would you be able to live with yourself afterward or would you be okay knowing their life died in vein. On the flip side, do you spare your loved one's life and face the barren world together alone? Will you live with regret knowing that even though you saved one life, you ultimately ended the lives of over seven billion people? WHAT DO YOU DO!?

I was talking about this with my sister earlier today. She said if it was me, she wouldn't be able to kill me even though she thinks it's what I would want in order to save everyone else. I said that if it was her, I would do it, but I don't believe I'd be able to live with myself any longer. It'd be too hard knowing I took my sister's life even if I saved billions of others.

Since we as a human race are 'social animals,' as described by John Locke, living with just two people in the world would be the epitome of a mundane existence. Let's also review how marriages and most relationships turn out - for some reason, there are always squabbles, and there are friends or places to console after squabbling with your signifant other. With nobody else in the world, who are you to confide in besides the person you're not exactly agreeing with at that time?

I would despise living with just one other person in existence for the rest of my life. With seven billion other people, I could find another person to love.

tl;dr - I would choose to spare the lives of the rest of the population of the world.

I would do it. I wouldn't try to explain it to the other person though; I'm too afraid they would tell me not to and then I wouldn't be able to.

I'd have them killed then killing myself. I feel like I wouldn't have to explain myself to "higher powers" having been put in such a devastating position.

The first person I thought of is my best friend. That would be a pretty difficult decision. It wasn't mentioned; is my own life involved? So long as it would be treated as murder or some other form of death (not suicide), I certainly would prefer that over being the reason for my best friend's death.

Otherwise I wouldn't have much of a choice than to let her die. x: Or perhaps I would let her have a say in it.

If I were to let her live, then the entire human race would die out. Even if I were stuck in an empty world with a guy, that still could happen. I:

I think I'd do it because who ever it is, there's still 7 billion out there, children, babies even, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

I wouldn't kill the person I care most about in the world to save a bunch of strangers, even if those strangers are the rest of the human populace. Why? Because I'm selfish and care more about my love one's life than everyone else's and the problem the rest of the world is having doesn't affect me in any way, shape, or form, given we're secluded from humanity with no one but each other.

It would be indescribably selfish to squander all of humanity for... I don't even know what; one life just isn't comparable to everything we have achieved as a species... or two lives, as it were, if this would so emotionally wreck me, but I doubt that. I can always find someone else, or die without — either way life goes on, and the one race which might be able to make eons of evolution on Earth worth something to the universe would still be going.

I'd do it because you couldn't not do it. How can you justify killing seven billion people to save one, no matter how much they mean to you?

The guilt would be unbearable either way. No matter what decision I made I think i would kill myself afterwards.

... Sadly, I would have to take the loved one... and just the loved one.

I have a lot of personal reasoning as to why I'd let 7 billion other people go at the cost of saving a single life.
You'd probably be surprised to know that it doesn't actually have much to do with my love for this person, though.

The first person that popped up my head was my sister. I love her so much, more than words could explain, and hurting her would be the worst thing I would've done. In my situation, I know that killing her would be wrong -- beyond wrong -- but I'll be saving millions of baby angels out there, I'll be saving millions of kids and teens, I'll be saving millions of adults and grandparents. It's a ratio of 1 : 7 billion.

Emotions aside, I'd kill her and kill myself afterwards.

How exactly would all of humanity's survival rest on whether one person lives or dies? That's so hypothetical it's hypothetically hypothetical.

Of course I would do it if I knew for sure all of humanity would die otherwise. I don't see how I could know that for sure though. I would assume anyone making such a claim was crazy and not listen to them and certainly not kill anyone.