Ethical philosophers often come up with hypothetical situations to test their ethical theories. These situations are commonly called 'ethical dilemmas'. One of the most famous dilemmas tests utilitarian ethics and is called the trolley problem. Imagine a trolley car, like the kind they have in San Francisco. It's moving along the tracks, heading downhill .... Further downhill there's a junction.
The trolley is heading straight downhill, towards five people who have been tied to the track by a mad professor. The trolley will surely hit them soon. On the section of track leading from the junction there is one person tied to the track, you have the junction switch. If you push it, you will save the five people, but the person on the other track will be killed, if you don't push it, that person will be saved, but the other five will die. What would you do?
Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarian's would say that it makes perfect sense to kill the one person in order to save the five. Other people may say that not pushing the switch is the better option, in order to avoid being partly to blame for something that is morally wrong. It's certainly a very tricky decision to make. What would you do? Would you kill five people to save one or one person to save five?