The Hiker Dilemma (Version One)

Imagine you're on a camping trip with some family members. You're with your spouse, your three children (ages 3, 5 and 6) and your spouse's elderly parents (both of whom are lifelong camping aficionados). You all plan to camp in a small hunting cabin deep in the woods. The group arrives early in the morning. You spend all day setting up the cabin and surveying the property. It is at this point that you realize you forgot to inform your family back home of the specific location of this cabin, but you shake off the worry. "They know we're camping, that should be enough" you think to yourself.  That night, a freak blizzard occurs; it's fine though, since you brought enough food for several days. You spend the next day waiting for the blizzard to eventually let up, but it only gets worse. As you all prepare for bed, a loud knocking is heard at the front door. You open the door to find a nearly frozen hiker. As you let the hiker in he informs you that he was out hiking the previous day and got caught in the storm. He asks to wait in your cabin until the storm lets up, and you say "O.K.".

Several days have now gone by, and things are only getting worse. You have a small radio with you, and with it you pick up a local news report. The reporter claims that all trails and roads in the area are impassable due to the blizzard, and travel is impossible for the time being. You start to worry, since you are running dangerously low on food. There is only enough food to last for another day or two. You check the radio the next day and the reporter explains that the area is now in a state of emergency, and no help could make it to any of the several major car accidents, much less search for lost hikers and campers. It is at this point that you notice the hiker has a small revolver in his pocket. He explains that he always brings it on hikes, for personal safety. Another day goes by and the storm finally begins to let up, but the radio reporter explains that there is a massive freeze coming, and the situation will only get worse. There is now no food and no chance of a rescue anytime soon. Your children are starting to get extremely hungry. The next day comes, and there indeed is a massive freeze. Everyone in the cabin is now extremely hungry, as the food ran out two days earlier. This is when the hiker suggests the unthinkable. "Maybe we should consider something rash, for us to survive. We might need to put one of these elderly folks down, for the rest of us to eat", he says. Now things are grave. Everything is frozen over, and everyone is in a state of semi-starvation. Your children are looking very ill, and the hiker continues to insist on eating. The hiker now demands that you kill the two elderly people so the rest of the group can live. Your spouse's elderly parents say: "No, kill the hiker! We don't even know him!" The revolver is in your possession, since the hiker left it on a table the day he suggested his plan, and you quickly grabbed it for fear of his doing something crazy. You are now in a serious dilemma. You could:

A) Take the hiker's suggestion and consume the two elderly people, to buy enough time for a possible rescue. (They've lived long lives. Besides, the children need food.)

B) Take the elderly members' suggestion and eat the hiker. (You don't even know him. Besides, he isn't family.)

C) Try to wait for help. Keep the peace with the revolver, and hope help comes before starvation does. (But the probability of this happening is very low, according to the only evidence you have  <the radio news reports> .)

So, what do you do?

(Any extra ideas will be welcome; just add them to the comments section).

The Pharmacist's Dilemma

I'm going to come up with a thought experiment for you. Imagine that we are on a very remote island off the coast of Maine (it doesn't matter which island, just pretend this is the most remote, yet still inhabited island off the coast of Maine). There is a horrible storm going on and it is supposed to last for several more days. Contact with the mainland is cut off and no boats or small planes can risk coming to the island. Let's now suppose that you have only a limited amount of antibiotics, and there is no way for you (The Pharmacist) to get any more antibiotics until the storm ends and shipments can continue. Now, four people walk into your pharmacy, two male adults, each with his young son (for simplicity's sake, both sons are the exact same age). Both children have the same infection (this infection has been going around the island for the past few weeks) that can easily be knocked out with antibiotics. However, if left untreated, this infection is usually fatal. The two fathers who both came into the drug store at the exact same time have prescriptions from local doctors on the island. Both sons are very ill, and each equally needs the medicine to pull through. There is a problem though; you (The Pharmacist) only have enough of the antibiotic for one person's treatment. Each father needs this medicine to save his gravely ill son. The one father is obviously very affluent, as he offers both the necessary insurance copay as well as 10,000 dollars in cash. The other father is obviously very poor, and has neither the copay or any extra cash to offer. The pharmacist is in a very tough dilemma. He has only enough medicine for one of these children, and the time it would take for the storm to end and more antibiotics to be brought over would be enough time for the second child to die from his infection. The poor father continues to beg for you to save his son's life, and the rich father continues to offer you this large amount of cash.  What should The Pharmacist do and why?