A group of children were playing on two railway tracks, one still in use and the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track while the rest played on the operational track.
The train comes, and you are just beside the track interchange.
Now you could let the train go on its way or change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, this would mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed.
Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make....
Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice the lone child. I guess you too might have made the same choice.
Initially, I thought exactly the same way because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was the most rational decision that majority of the people would chose to make, morally and emotionally.
But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?
Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was and no one would shed tear for him.
However one of my friends who read this story said that she would not try to change the course of the train because she believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they would have run away if they heard the train's sirens.
If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track!
Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people.
Moral : Life is full of tough decisions… "Just remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right."
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