The Number Problem In Significant Ethical Decisions

Using scarce resources to save lives-where those who obtain resources survive and those who do not die-is a typical ethical decision that determines who avoids serious harm.This kind of decision often occurs between different groups.For example,you have 5 doses of medication,and there are two groups of patients: Group A has 5people with mild symptoms,each requiring one dose of medication to survive,and they will die without it.Group B has 1 person with severe symptoms,requiring all 5 doses of medication to survive,and he will die without it.The distribution of medication between these two groups is a significant ethical decision: if you give the medication to Group A,you can save five people,but if you give the medication to Group B,you can only save 1 person.From a purely numerical perspective,5 is more than 1,so you should give the medication to Group A.However,since you believe that human life is The Life and the decision cannot be based solely on the number of people,the 1 person in Group B should also have a chance to survive.The number problem is the study of the role of group size in decision-making.This article investigates the number problem in significant ethical decision-making.Firstly,this article argues that in significant ethical decision-making,groups cannot be the recipients of aid,only each individual should be considered as a recipient of aid for scarce resource distribution.This means that even if there are two groups in the medication distribution example,they should be separated and the 6 individuals needing aid should be considered separately.Subsequently,this article proposes three principles for significant ethical decision-making: the principle of saving lives,which states that resources should be distributed to save lives as long as there are resources available;the principle of treating people as an end in themselves,which states that each individual’s claim to survival should be respected during resource distribution;and the principle of impartiality,which states that resource distribution should be independent of the preferences of those providing aid.Based on these three principles,this article proposes an distribution procedure that breaks down resource distribution into a series of steps: first,follow the principle of saving lives and repeat the following distribution process until all scarce resources are used up;second,follow the principle of treating people as an end in themselves and consider each individual needing aid equally;third,follow the principle of impartiality and give everyone who could be saved an equal chance of survival,that is,randomly aid 1 person.In addition,this procedure can adapt to various distribution scenarios.For example,in the patient example where only 3 doses of medication are available,people’s intuition is unable to make a decision.The distribution program proposed in this article can handle various distribution scenarios,such as the distribution scenario where 3 doses of medication are enough to save severely ill patients.The article also implements this distribution process through programming and verifies the numerical results of survival probabilities...