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 have two children and if in an apocalyptic situation all but one of us had to die, I think a coin flip between them would be the fairest way to decide. Then it's just pure luck, and I'm sure either of them (both teenagers) would be able to carry on without the rest of us – they would at least deserve the opportunity to try.

But I can understand your reasoning.

Fair enough, I guess that's another way to do things. I am also basing my reasoning on what I have seen in my children facing a devastating loss and statements they have made. For example, flying with all the family but one of my children recently, he had said that if we all died in a plane crash he'd wish he'd been on the plane too. I'm not sure how my answer would differ if we hadn't had the prior experience.

I asked DD. She said she probably would do it if there was a high chance of her ending up being the only person alive, because she wouldn’t want that. She definitely gave it a lot more thought than I thought she would.😬

My kids? Absolutely not.

Myself, depends on the certainty of success, the age of my children and whether or not their other parent is still alive. If success was a guarantee (or extremely likely) DH was with the kids and they were a bit older. Then yeah probably, otherwise nope. I'm gonna stay and make sure my kids survive.

Nope I hate everyone but my own kids and <mostly> DH. My kids need me so if the rest of the world got wiped out meh.

If the whole world gets wiped out… how will you survive? What will you eat? What if they get poorly? They’d have to watch everyone around them die. You could die (accident, illness , or even old age but at least they’d be adults)and leave them all alone. Then the sibling would die and you’d have one child left, literally all alone in the world.Would you and each other really be enough for them? And so on.

Well this is mumsnet, so I assume more people on here passed on dna than not. Even if I did all the work of creating them for 9 months and they selfishly came out looking much more like their father 😂.

Not necessarily. Whilst this is in fact Mumsnet, despite the name it has a lot of non parents (childless/infertile, childfree by choice) because of the plethora of varied boards on here.

I would never sacrifice either one of my children regardless of how many it would save. I would only sacrifice myself if it meant my children would be amongst those saved.

Right, I hate most of humanity.

It makes these questions easier. 😁

The downsides are that I a creature of the first world and like to be comfortable.

So humanity and a functioning society is required for my coffees, and heated car seats.

If I could reduce humanity by 2/3 and keep my current lifestyle I absolutely would.

Bring on the robots.

As if I care about the rest of the world

I loved this series when it came out and my DH had played the game previously.
I 100% would not sacrifice any of my children for anyone else. The state of the country and half the people in it are not worth it and don’t deserve it. Let it all go tits up and let the strongest survive I say

I don’t have children, myself absolutely.

Child I absolutely want to say no, but if they are very young and the only person immune they may die a horrible death alone with no-one to care for them.

Just me I’d hate to be the only person on earth and wouldn’t survive anyway as presumably die of a basic illness unless I know what antibiotics to take.

Are your children (all if them) the strongest of the bunch though?

I really wanted to watch it but the combination of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey made it impossible

They are both strong and clever enough to give it a go plus they are not alone they’d be with me and their dad so yeh we might not make it long term but equally we’d give it a good fight. I wouldn’t hand over one of my children and say I know there’s not 100% success rate for it but kill her and take a chance

At first I was a bit put off with Bella Ramsey taking the part of Ellie because she doesn’t look like the character however she played her well. I wouldn’t of let that stop me watching it, it was definitely worth a watch

Think im the only person who would.
Reasoning is chances of surviving anyways is slim. If everyone died from this virus they would be so lonely. Food will be gone. It would save them from so much trauma. They will never live a life either way you look at it may as well save some hardships for the child. Especially if a girl.
Saving humanity would just be a bonus tbh

Nope, not my babies.

Which is why I said majority. In any case, the thread is predominantly about sacrificing your child to save humanity, so I imagine it will draw more parents. Much easier to justify sacrificing someone else's.

Sure, sure . You’re all a family of Daryl Dixons.

No. The rest of society could die for all I care.

They are both okay actors but I can’t stand their virtual signalling dullness.

yeh we might not make it long term

Daryl Dixon wouldn’t say that

I 100% wouldn't sacrifice my child, not a chance. And whilst my children are not old enough to take care of themselves I wouldnt sacrifice myself either.