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Would it be ethical to ask death-seeking people to go work in dangerous situations?
(sh.itjust.works)
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2026
23 points (70.9% liked)
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I don't think the people who are focusing on why it's a bad idea are ignoring the focus on ethics, tbh. It's unethical to do this because it puts others at risk too.
I know they aren’t, I’m just curious about the ethics/morals of such an idea is all. Obviously if it was put into practice, the effectiveness would undoubtedly need to be considered. However, as I said before, this isn’t being put into practice — it’s a discussion on Lemmy.
Maybe I'm missing your point but I don't think you quite understand mine: the replies that are saying it would be ineffective are also saying it's unethical.
Whereas I focused on it being unethical because it's cruel to the suicidal person, it is also an unethical practice because it means knowingly using people who are less effective at these tasks, which harms the people depending on the successful completion of the dangerous work.
Not at all. Hey, if you can link effectiveness to the ethics, fantastic. All I was saying was I was more focused on the ethics rather than the effectiveness, which I do think is a debate on its own. However, if you can make the case to justify the ethics in relation to the effectiveness, I’ll definitely read it.
That's my entire case though: It is unethical to choose methods of rescue or other emergency responses that are less effective than the other available methods.
I know. It’s a fair point and I do agree: if you knew it would be less effective than something else, it would be unethical because you’re not doing the best you can, which would put more lives at danger when you could have a higher chance to save more