044.5 Moral Dilemmas That Will Break Your Brain: Nargles #1, #5, #6

Dear Quibbles and Warbles and readers,
Please forgive my inexcusable absence and neglect to this blog. I went though a very uninspired period which I have finally realized why this was the case. As our posts got better and better, I felt more pressure to please readers (not that we have many :P) and imaginary ghosts in the sky, feeling my writing needed to be more substantial and "deep," if you will. I forgot the reason why Quibbles and I started this blog, so we could write about stuff we thought was fun, controversial, and interesting. I forgot that I wasn't writing here for anyone but myself and people who like what I want to write, and this frankly does not include Ebola. Thank you to Quibbles, whose previous post reminded me of this, because these are the types of things I enjoy randomly spitting my thoughts on the internet for.
Love always,
- Nargles 11/10/14

1) You are at your best friend’s wedding just an hour before the ceremony is to start. Earlier that day, you came across definitive proof that your best friend’s spouse-to-be is having an affair with the best man/maid of honor, and you catch them sneaking out of a room together looking disheveled. If you tell your friend about the affair, their day will be ruined, but you don’t want them to marry a cheater. What do you do?

     Of course, the only logical explanation would be to tell your best friend that their fiancé is a dirty cheater. If they go ahead and marry this said person, it'll come back and bite them in the butt. I'd most definitely rather find out before it's too late that I'm marrying someone untrustworthy. However, there is a chance that they may not believe you, and go forward with the wedding anyway (after uninviting you and or kicking you out), in which case you've done all you can, really.

5) You’re involved in a two-car crash on your way to work one morning in which you accidentally hit and kill a pedestrian. As you get out of the car, you are intercepted by a tearful woman who seems to think that she hit and killed the pedestrian. You’re not sure why she thinks she hit the person, but she is convinced. There’s only you, the woman, and the person you hit on the road; there are no witnesses. You know that whoever is deemed responsible will probably be sent to jail. What do you do?

     First and foremostly I would like to point out that technically you cannot be jailed by the government for hitting and killing a pedestrian. You can, however, be jailed for breaking related laws, such as driving under the influence or performing a "hit and run." You are also liable for any civil repercussions of hitting this pedestrian, such as being sued or having to pay any expenses that causes the victim's family distress. Humoring the scenario, of course, I will play along. Of course, my conscious being what it is, there is no way I could just drive away and dump the blame on a woman who I clearly know did not kill this pedestrian. Not to mention that if the police discovered that this woman did not kill the pedestrian, I would most definitely go to jail for a hit and run. The one thing I can't stand and will probably be my downfall is having a dirty conscious. I hate feeling guilty, and even if I know it will get me in trouble I will probably admit the truth to the exact person I was trying to hide whatever it is from. If some other woman was sent to jail for a crime I committed, it would plague me for the rest of my life, and I think I might rather go to jail.

6) Your family is vacationing alone on a private stretch of beach with no lifeguard. Your daughter and your niece, both 7, are best friends and eager to get into the water. You caution them to wait until the water calms some, but they defy you and sneak in anyway. You soon hear screams of distress and find them both caught in a strong current. You are the only swimmer strong enough to save them, but you can only save one at a time. Your niece is a very poor swimmer and likely won’t make it much longer. Your daughter is a stronger swimmer, but only has a 50% chance of holding on long enough for you to come back for her. Who do you save first?

     I feel as if the moral choice to go with is to save your niece because if you go for your daughter, there is no way that your niece would survive, but if you save your niece first there is a 50% chance that she'd still be there when you came back for her. This may be the more logical and moral choice, but I feel like I'm not alone in saying that although I would probably like to think that I would save my niece first and be logical in a scary situation, I would most likely save my daughter first. Sure, it may be selfish and desperate, but my own child? If one of the two girls had to die, I think it would haunt my conscious more in the future if I chose my niece over my own daughter.