There you are at a hospital. Doctors and nurses have just rushed in with a boy on a gurney, an oxygen mask held to his face, his parents running after in a panic, calling his name. The parents have minor cuts and scratches, some blood on their faces. Behind some hospital staff is dragging what is clearly a drunken man. His head is lolling from side to side. He’s is speaking but slurring his words and he is making an attempt in his drunken stupor to fight away the staff.
You watch as the parents plead for their son’s life. The father turns and suddenly tries to attack the drunkard but a police officer holds him back. The drunkard kicks at a supply cart and violently pushes a nurse to the floor. The excitement in the doctors’ voices is not good. It seems the boy will die, a victim of a car crash caused by the drunken driver who shows no remorse and only maintains an obnoxious attitude to any who try to assist him. You see he has some bad lacerations on his right arm however he refuses all help.
Then a young man appears next to you. He says he can help the boy. He can save him. He has the power and you know he speaks the truth because you know there are people like him who can heal and save lives. You know it’s true because you are the opposite. You have the power to kill with a pulse that stops the heart dead. It’s not a gift you are glad to have and the one person who knows about your power won’t let you touch her or her daughter, even when the daughter has fallen down. She is afraid of what might happen if you do touch her.
The man next to you says he will save the boy if you will kill the drunken man. You respond with shock and repulse. The young man explains that the drunken man is clearly remorseless and even if he goes to prison he will likely repeat the same again. He is a scourge upon society. You protest and argue that a human life is of equal value no matter what wrong the individual may have done. But you see the drunken man continue to fight those who wish to help him while the boy’s parents are in tears of desperation to have their son’s life saved. Is this a game? Have you no respect for human life? You ask the young man these things. But you realize that the only way to save the boy and spare his parents agonizing grief is to do what the young man asks you to and hope he carries out his part of the bargain.
The drunken man escapes from the nurse and comes out into the hall where you stand as he approaches. He bumps your shoulder hard and turns to sneer at you, “You gotta problem?” as he grabs you by the collar. You take his wrist in your hands and with your special power you send a pulse through his body that stops his heart. One of his eyes crosses to the side and with a gentle push he slumps into the bench where you sat a moment ago. The young man has gone. A nurse comes out to see the drunken man and discovers he is unresponsive and has no pulse. She calls for the doctor who comes rushing out and with shock finds the man is dead. You look around for the young man but he is no where to be seen. You were tricked. He has reneged on his part of the deal.
But then you see the boy in the emergency room sit up suddenly. His parents jump and gently place their hands on him for support. “Are you OK?” they ask. “Yeah, I feel fine.” The parents burst into tears of relief and thank God for the miracle.
You discover soon after that all children in the children’s ward have suddenly become healed of broken bones and other injuries. “It doesn’t hurt anymore,” a little girl cries out as she stands on her cast-bound leg. The young man did keep his promise. At the cost of one reckless soul an innocent boy’s life was spared and many other children were healed of their injuries. All because you agreed to kill a man.
This was the end of the second episode of a Japanese drama that airs on Fridays. I thought the moral question here was interesting, so I will ask it here:
If you had the power to kill and someone you knew had the power to heal, would you agree to kill someone with your power in order to have him heal someone? Let’s take it a step further and say that he can only heal someone, that is save them from death, if you kill someone. It must be an exchange of a life for a life. It didn’t matter whom you killed, just as long as someone died. How many people would you be able to help save?
