Fun with Moral Reasoning

First, there’s this:

Suppose there is a fire in a fertility clinic. You are the only adult present, and there is a newborn baby and a tank of liquid nitrogen with 5,000 frozen embryos in the clinic. You can save only one of them before the place burns down — which would you choose?“

….

Some of you might recognize the first part of that as one of my favorite things to collect: 27 Ninja Scenarios–That is, fantasy situations which 1). start with a preconceived notion (destructive embryonic research is morally acceptable) 2.) construct a scenario in which an act that ostensibly affirms the preconceived notion is the only sensible choice, and 3.) whistle past whole chunks of reality to make it work.

Then, there’s this.

One good rule of thumb I’ve discovered over the year is, “The more obviously immoral the act you seek to justify is, the more bizarre and unlikely the hypothetical situation you will concoct to make your preferred monstrous act the the only possible choice.”