There’s a deadly virus - would you sacrifice yours or your child’s life to create a vaccine?

[Theycallmemellowyellowyellow]

I’ve been watching a really good series and this scenario came up.

Theres a deadly virus, catching the virus means certain death as well as the extreme likelihood that you’ll infect large numbers of people before you die.

You find out that your child’s is immune and is the key to creating a vaccine, but in order to do so your child would die during the operation.

Humanity and civilisation as we once knew it is finished due to the amount of people who have died and the humans that are left are merely surviving and trying to avoid becoming infected. But some people have created small communities and are living the best lives they can.

Would you be willing to sacrifice your child’s life in order to create a vaccine? Or what about your own life?

I would sacrifice myself but never my own child

Nope

The Last Of Us?

I wouldn't trust the ragtag hospital to harvest the cure, so I'd do a runner.

Absolutely not

Yeah, I mean I wouldn’t have trusted that hospital either.

But even if I did I still couldn’t/wouldn’t sacrifice my child (I know she wasn’t his biological child but still).

I thought that it was such a difficult scenario though especially considering how many more lives were lost to save one person.

My own life? No brainer, absolutely.
My child? For my 12 year old I would ask him what he wanted to do and I would live with that choice, as much as I would want to say no.
My 8 year old? No way.

Of course not and I doubt anyone would

I would allow medical procedures with limits if it would be helpful, eg taking blood maybe even plasma or bone marrow. But obviously not something that would kill them.

I wouldn’t sacrifice myself either if I was immune unless maybe if it was the only hope for my kids to survive. Even then, only if there was another parent who would look after them in my place. And tbh I think my survival instinct and doubt about whether it would really help my kids would probably stop me sacrificing myself in the end.

No to either

when it comes down to it there is no way I would sacrifice my child for man kind and I would heavily judge anyone who would for being a crap parent.

It’s been years since I played it but wasn’t it like not even a decent chance of the vaccine working? Like 40%?

I don’t know, this was the series they didn’t mention it not working.

It got me thinking though how strong our parental instinct is.

After he saved Ellie from he aftermath was that he killed all those people and all those people in the village died because the infected people got in.

But I was still on Joel’s side and would have done the same.

Yeah I don’t think you’d ever find a parent who would sacrifice their kid in that situation, regardless of the hurt they would be inflicting on the rest of society.

But what makes Joel’s decision even more interesting and heartbreaking is that Ellie isn’t his daughter. His daughter died. He’d been travelling with Ellie for less than a year when he made that decision.

As a mother, would you sacrifice a vaccine and the rest of society for a foster child you’d been with for a year? An impossible hypothetical I suppose, but is it an easy an answer as your own child?

DD? Nope!

Me? Depends how old she was and what guarantees there would be she would be well looked after if I’m gone.

Yup. I’m pretty selfish.

No - sorry everyone

Totally pointless case scenario but ultimately why would anyone sacrifice themselves? Who decides that their and their children lives are worth less than others?

If you look at it logically, the odds of surviving a post apocalyptic world are pretty slim anyway. And that’s just making it out alive, never mind various traumas and violence of all kinds.

I wouldn't sacrifice either.

Great thread OP. We are obsessed with this show and the game but this question hasn't come up! I'll have to ask my family what they think.

To answer your question, my life yes I would. And my child's life - I would ask them. Mainly because the life they are living in TLOU is scary and not destined to be long anyway, so maybe it would be better for them to avoid all the fear and pain and have their death be painless and mean something.
Regarding the state of the hospital, you aren't going to find anything better and you have to start somewhere. I felt for Joel but I really empathized with the staff who were desperately trying to find a cure.

As someone points out, it wasn’t his daughter but rather a random girl he’d been travelling with for less than a year, having been hired/tasked to escort her to a location. She’s not his adopted daughter, she’s a job, basically. In that case, yes, I’d sacrifice one child in order to save the remainder of humanity. It’s the logical, utilitarian choice, and anything else would actually be unethical, imo.

But my own child? No. Logic doesn’t come into it with my own children. I’m happy to be massively unethical and hypocritical when it comes to them.

Would I sacrifice myself? Yes, but only if it vastly increased the chances that my children would live safe, happy, long lives, and I knew they would be looked after.

I think id have to sacrifice my child wouldnt i or else we would all likely die anyway??
Definately wiuld sacrifice myself.
If i did have to sacrifice my child id probably have to kill myself because i dont think id be able to live with that.
What a horrible 'sophies choice' scenario.
God that film haunts me i still cry any time that pops in my mind.
But yeah what can you do? Theres bo choice that isnt awful

It’s human nature that people would expect others to sacrifice themselves or their child for the good of the world but wouldn’t do it themselves. Humans are inherently selfish beings

Nope. I wouldnt expect a willing sacrifice from any parent.

Lets up the stakes. Would you support the forcible removal and death of someone else's child for this vaccine if it meant yours would live.

My answer is Yes.

I wouldn't support the forcible removal of a child to save my own. That child's life is valuable too. It's bad luck if my child doesn't have immunity, like most of the population. I couldn't kill another child to save my own (excepting situations like self-defence, which this wouldn't really be).

No, I wouldn't give up my child's life to provide the cure. If my child is immune, I'd expect there will be others who are. Those are the people who will survive and can repopulate the world later. Extinction events happen. Then nature will take it's course and survival of the fittest, and all that.

Agree. But then I'd be willing to kill billions of people to ensure my children were able to have a future, so one child seems like a bargain.

I tend to think that if something isn't good enough for my child, it's not good enough for anyone else's either. I wouldn't sacrifice my child and I wouldn't accept anyone having to sacrifice their child either. Even if that means my entire family dies in the extinction event. Having already lost a child though, I think I have perhaps come to terms with death in a different way than some might have.