The Footbridge Dilemma

The Footbridge Dilemma is a thought experiment in ethics that poses a moral question: Imagine there is a runaway trolley heading towards five people tied to a track. You can pull a lever to divert the trolley onto another track, but this will instead kill one person standing there. Alternatively, you can do nothing, resulting in five deaths. The dilemma explores the conflict between utilitarianism (saving the most lives) and deontological ethics (the principle that one should not actively cause harm). It challenges our moral intuitions about right and wrong in difficult situations involving life and death.