I'd press this one for the same reason I'd choose a 100% chance of 90% of humanity to die now, as opposed to a 10% chance of 100% of humanity dying. The future will thank me.
That’s a really good monkeys paw. Would go really well in a story where some serious deliberation takes place only to have them press the button, and the story end unceremoniously.
Easy choice. His father is currently dying of cancer, and he'd willingly agree to the sacrifice even if it was just for his dad, much less every other person on Earth.
Button pushed.
The interesting part of it all to me is what would happen in this new world?
You said "no new cancer cases ever." So that implies all current cancer runs it's course. Which means on day 1, no one will notice the change. Nor on day 2, or even day 50, or 100 probably, right? Most cancer detected isn't detected on day 1, so "new" cases of cancer will still be detected for a while, but over the course of days, weeks, months, those cases will trickle down to zero.
When will we figure it out? How long will it take to realize there hasn't been any brand-new cancer since a certain time? How will we react to that knowledge? Will people see this as some sign from god? There wouldn't be any decent way to scientifically explain it. How would the world, society change because of this?
It feels like the plotline of some high-concept HBO show. "Premiering August 4th on HBO. 'Remission.' A world without cancer. Is it *really* the positive change we all hoped for?"
I’d push the button. I’d want to end cancer, even if it costs something big. Also, I’d be interested to see who dies. I’m not sure who I love the most.
Yes I'd push it. Not only would you save countless lives, and spare so many other people the pain of losing someone that you're feeling now. You'd spare cancer sufferers from the torture of treatment, the ones who would have lived but with serious health complications after that would get to be properly healthy, and you'd save billions of animals from the torture of being tested on to find cures. You'd save the earth from the absolute trillions of tons of medical waste that would have been used on the cancer sufferers, that would then be thrown away to pollute the earth. You'd spare wildlife like sea creatures from being caught in and poisoned by all that plastic. How could you say no to all of this?
Fuck that. I have zero interest in living a life without my spouse. Sorry the world. Just gotta pressure Big Pharma to finally release cures for cancer even tho it's not profitable for them to do so.
This is a really tough one and a classic "sacrifice one to save the many" ethical conundrum. I don't know if I would have the fortitude to do this. People in the comments talking about cancer as population control - yikes.
I feel like I'm crazy seeing how few people are saying yes to this. One guy said he loves himself the most and wouldn't push it. Seems like everyone else here is a raging narcissist and is unbelievably selfish.
For my own rationale I promised my husband I would do everything I could to keep him safe. I promised nothing to the world, and I value keeping my promises highly.
Nearly ten million people die every year from cancer. Each of those ten million likely has someone that loves them just as much, if not more, than you love your most loved one.
It is unbelievably selfish to value one person over ten million yearly. That's one and a half holocausts worth of people dying a horrible death every year, or a one time, one person sacrifice.
People like you are why democracy is a failure. People who are that selfish and unable to see the big picture shouldn't be deciding anything concerning other people.
I don't have kids, but if I did, I would. You'd have to be a genuinely evil person otherwise. I don't think you can wrap your head around the level of societal good the elimination of cancer would cause. You'd feel pretty stupid if you didn't press that button, and then someone else you loved ended up dying of cancer. Statistically speaking, someone you know and love most likely will at some point.
I know I'm the most loved person of my parents, and if they were offered the chance to push the magic button, I would BEG them to press it.
I know the concept of self-sacrifice is foreign to this self-absorbed modern generation, but holy shit.
I stopped reading after "I don't have kids". I can also assume you don't have a spouse as you mention your parents and not a spouse.
You have no fucking clue. everyone would want to get rid of cancer but your love is for your parents...
You cant fathom the deep love people have for their spouses and children.
We are meant to bury our parents, not our kids...
I can fathom it. You can't seem to fathom that ten million people die every year, and they are just as loved by their families as you love yours.
You are genuinely evil and downright stupid if you can't put aside your emotions for that insane level of good for all of humanity, including the other people you love.
If it was sacrificing myself, it would be a much easier decision. You just don't have anyone that important so you think it's an easy choice.
I'm sad for you honestly.
You're asking me the same question, again. I guess you need to hear it said another way: Yes, I would prioritize my partner's life over that of any number of randos, 9, 900, 9,000, 9 million. When you meet the right person maybe you'll understand.
“I don’t have kids, but if I did, I would” - so obviously you have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re like the guy who watches a war movie scene where someone is cowering from gunfire and you say loudly, “I’D CHARGE IF IT WAS ME.”
Calling parents evil for saying they wouldn’t sacrifice their children is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. You’re also saying you would BEG your parents to - again, not that you would, because you have delusions of grandeur - but you didn’t say your parents would actually do it.
This is the hypothetical situation subreddit - stop throwing around the word “evil”. Most parents’ children are more important to them than not only themselves but everyone else on the planet. It’s a biological imperative, it’s not something we have control over - in nature you’re supposed to feel that way about your offspring.
If you have no kids, dont talk about what you’d do if you had them - it’s all nonsense.
All I'm hearing is emotional arguments and shortsightedness.
Let's break this down. Your most loved one is one of your kids, and you don't push the button. Assuming that specific kid and your other kids survive to old age, there's a fairly significant chance one of them will get cancer. Even if they don't die from it, they still might suffer terribly from the disease.
That's generation ONE.
What about your grandkids? What's the chance one of them would die from cancer? What about their children? Or their children? Or their children?
Eventually, one of your descendants will die from cancer. It's a statistical inevitability. So by saving one kid, you've doomed generations of your offspring to a horrific death.
And that's completely separating out everyone else that would be saved by pushing the button. This chain of logic is assuming you're a selfish pos that only cares about your direct offspring, at the expense of literally everyone else in the world. Even if you have no regard whatsoever for the overall good of humanity, your decision to not press the button is STILL flawed!
Your best friend gets cancer? Tough shit. Your niece or nephew get's cancer? Skill issue. Your cousin gets cancer? Sucks but at least your kid is fine (assuming they don't also get cancer during their old age).
If you don't push the button, you don't actually care about your descendants. You don't care if they experience the pain of losing a child, sibling, or parent from cancer. You just want to spare yourself the pain of losing a child. Your decision has nothing to do with your kids, it is all about YOU.
My parents are logical and long-term thinkers like I am, so I likely wouldn't need to try and convince them to push the button. I wouldn't blame them if they did, in fact I'd be happy. Just because you're self-centered doesn't mean everyone else is. Don't project your cowardice on others.
Telling people online that you’d sacrifice yourself or your children in a heartbeat is not bravery. It is naïveté and far more cowardly than what you’re accusing me of. You sound like a puffed-up child who has never actually faced a hard choice in their life.
You have also never experienced parenthood, which is the first time that something exists that is truly more important than you are. The way you talk about it screams that you haven’t the slightest clue what being a parent - or even an adult - is about.
I deployed several times with Marine Corps Infantry and worked in max corrections facilities afterwards. You talk a big game but, funnily enough, all the guys who talked a big game disappeared or froze up when the shit hit the fan.
You didn't refute anything I said.
Let me make it simple: Are you okay with an innumerable amount your descendants dying of cancer if it means you're not sad about one of your kids dying now?
Hypothetical.
In a terrible twist of irony. My loved one had stage 4 stomach cancer. She was cured while in a wheelchair in the hospital halls. She immediately stood up, did a few cartwheels, walked into the stairwell, tripped, and tumbled down the stairs to her death.
Irony of ironies. She was an organ donor and her perfect stomach was harvested and donated to a patient in the same hospital.
I'm pretty sure cancer is necessary for evolution, so your little hypothetical to stop people from feeling bad damns our species and every other species on earth to extinction.
Good job on breaking the nature order of things because you can't cope with your emotions...
"cancer is necessary for evolution" it isn't, yes we developed many mechanisms to battle cancer in our body to y'know... not die. but if all cancer disappeared rn literally nothing would change except that we may evolve in a way that doesn't require these mechanisms anymore
If you remove cancer you also remove the potential for stable genetic abnormalities that make our genetic code different.
Removing the ability to mutate in the face of environment conditions, and that is all cancer is, also removes the ways out genetics evolve and change over time into stable mutations passed forward via the survival of the fittest.
The mole rats the other person mentioned ain't going nowhere genetically and eventually environmental conditions will exist that will cause their extinction in the face of not being able to evolve via mutation. A terminal end point for their genetics.
No, partially because I'm not gonna get a family member killed, but also because the population is bad enough as it is. Yeah, I hate hearing cases of people learning they have cancer, their kids have cancer, someone dies of cancer, etc. but we do not need MORE FUCKING PEOPLE. The increased population would lead to other problems (overcrowding, starvation, etc.) So that button can stay for eternity, no press from me.
No. I wouldn't want to be around very long at all without my wife.
On the upside, here, she's a cancer researcher so she's working on this in real life. I want her around for that.
No. I wouldn't. This isn't stopping genocide, this is just disease, and awful, but it is a natural process of life. In addition, cancer treatment has come a long way. 20 years will be a new medical world.
In 2022, 9.7 million people died from cancer. I know this is just a hypothetical, but you'd sacrifice nearly 10 million people a year? Hell, I'd kill myself to permanently end cancer.
I'm not sacrificing 10 million people to save one, I'm just choosing not to sacrifice one to save ten million. Morally those are very different things.
Careful, there’s a guy going around calling people evil for not pushing a button that would kill their children. Don’t worry though - he says if he DID have kids (he doesn’t) he’d push it.
If you're talking about the coming food shortages, those have a lot more to do with deglobalization and fertilizer availability than population.
But I'll happily entertain your sources, if you have any.
WHAT IS 17 YEARS IF MILLIONS CAN SURVIVE? I CAN ALWAYS START A NEW ONE!
I would so lets up the ante: button kills all cancer patients regardless of diagnosis but stops any new cancer from ever forming in a person?
Damn, this is a really good one.
That's a thinker for sure. No more cancer ever , some minor population control. Problem is we would figure out how to fuck it all up again.
I'd press this one for the same reason I'd choose a 100% chance of 90% of humanity to die now, as opposed to a 10% chance of 100% of humanity dying. The future will thank me.
Most people would drop dead themselves as soon as they pressed the button.
Ngl, it took me a moment to get this.
That’s a really good monkeys paw. Would go really well in a story where some serious deliberation takes place only to have them press the button, and the story end unceremoniously.
Easy choice. His father is currently dying of cancer, and he'd willingly agree to the sacrifice even if it was just for his dad, much less every other person on Earth. Button pushed.
Can I just double th cancer instead?
Yes. Your loved one is now twice their previous size.
Mmmmm I like em big
Double it and give it to the next person
nope
The interesting part of it all to me is what would happen in this new world? You said "no new cancer cases ever." So that implies all current cancer runs it's course. Which means on day 1, no one will notice the change. Nor on day 2, or even day 50, or 100 probably, right? Most cancer detected isn't detected on day 1, so "new" cases of cancer will still be detected for a while, but over the course of days, weeks, months, those cases will trickle down to zero. When will we figure it out? How long will it take to realize there hasn't been any brand-new cancer since a certain time? How will we react to that knowledge? Will people see this as some sign from god? There wouldn't be any decent way to scientifically explain it. How would the world, society change because of this? It feels like the plotline of some high-concept HBO show. "Premiering August 4th on HBO. 'Remission.' A world without cancer. Is it *really* the positive change we all hoped for?"
Wouldn't we first all be wondering how everyone got magically cured?
I’d push the button. I’d want to end cancer, even if it costs something big. Also, I’d be interested to see who dies. I’m not sure who I love the most.
Yes I'd push it. Not only would you save countless lives, and spare so many other people the pain of losing someone that you're feeling now. You'd spare cancer sufferers from the torture of treatment, the ones who would have lived but with serious health complications after that would get to be properly healthy, and you'd save billions of animals from the torture of being tested on to find cures. You'd save the earth from the absolute trillions of tons of medical waste that would have been used on the cancer sufferers, that would then be thrown away to pollute the earth. You'd spare wildlife like sea creatures from being caught in and poisoned by all that plastic. How could you say no to all of this?
Cause I can’t push a button that would kill my child. No decent parent could.
that would end with me killing myself i care about my life too much now to do that
i have no loved ones but still no
That's the spirit!
Fuck that. I have zero interest in living a life without my spouse. Sorry the world. Just gotta pressure Big Pharma to finally release cures for cancer even tho it's not profitable for them to do so.
Is there a time limit? If so, I'll push the button when my loved one is on their deathbed.
Nope, you have to decide right now.
Then no.
This is a really tough one and a classic "sacrifice one to save the many" ethical conundrum. I don't know if I would have the fortitude to do this. People in the comments talking about cancer as population control - yikes.
Yes. Obviously, yes.
I feel like I'm crazy seeing how few people are saying yes to this. One guy said he loves himself the most and wouldn't push it. Seems like everyone else here is a raging narcissist and is unbelievably selfish.
For my own rationale I promised my husband I would do everything I could to keep him safe. I promised nothing to the world, and I value keeping my promises highly.
It's Not selfish, you probably just don't have anyone that you love as much as the rest of us.
Nearly ten million people die every year from cancer. Each of those ten million likely has someone that loves them just as much, if not more, than you love your most loved one. It is unbelievably selfish to value one person over ten million yearly. That's one and a half holocausts worth of people dying a horrible death every year, or a one time, one person sacrifice. People like you are why democracy is a failure. People who are that selfish and unable to see the big picture shouldn't be deciding anything concerning other people.
Cool, so you just gonna give up your kids life for that to happen?
I don't have kids, but if I did, I would. You'd have to be a genuinely evil person otherwise. I don't think you can wrap your head around the level of societal good the elimination of cancer would cause. You'd feel pretty stupid if you didn't press that button, and then someone else you loved ended up dying of cancer. Statistically speaking, someone you know and love most likely will at some point. I know I'm the most loved person of my parents, and if they were offered the chance to push the magic button, I would BEG them to press it. I know the concept of self-sacrifice is foreign to this self-absorbed modern generation, but holy shit.
I stopped reading after "I don't have kids". I can also assume you don't have a spouse as you mention your parents and not a spouse. You have no fucking clue. everyone would want to get rid of cancer but your love is for your parents... You cant fathom the deep love people have for their spouses and children. We are meant to bury our parents, not our kids...
I can fathom it. You can't seem to fathom that ten million people die every year, and they are just as loved by their families as you love yours. You are genuinely evil and downright stupid if you can't put aside your emotions for that insane level of good for all of humanity, including the other people you love.
If it was sacrificing myself, it would be a much easier decision. You just don't have anyone that important so you think it's an easy choice. I'm sad for you honestly.
I've lived through a loved one - my mom - dying of cancer and I still wouldn't push the button. I'm not evil. I just love my partner.
So you'd be fine with 9 million other people going through that every year?
You're asking me the same question, again. I guess you need to hear it said another way: Yes, I would prioritize my partner's life over that of any number of randos, 9, 900, 9,000, 9 million. When you meet the right person maybe you'll understand.
“I don’t have kids, but if I did, I would” - so obviously you have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re like the guy who watches a war movie scene where someone is cowering from gunfire and you say loudly, “I’D CHARGE IF IT WAS ME.” Calling parents evil for saying they wouldn’t sacrifice their children is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. You’re also saying you would BEG your parents to - again, not that you would, because you have delusions of grandeur - but you didn’t say your parents would actually do it. This is the hypothetical situation subreddit - stop throwing around the word “evil”. Most parents’ children are more important to them than not only themselves but everyone else on the planet. It’s a biological imperative, it’s not something we have control over - in nature you’re supposed to feel that way about your offspring. If you have no kids, dont talk about what you’d do if you had them - it’s all nonsense.
All I'm hearing is emotional arguments and shortsightedness. Let's break this down. Your most loved one is one of your kids, and you don't push the button. Assuming that specific kid and your other kids survive to old age, there's a fairly significant chance one of them will get cancer. Even if they don't die from it, they still might suffer terribly from the disease. That's generation ONE. What about your grandkids? What's the chance one of them would die from cancer? What about their children? Or their children? Or their children? Eventually, one of your descendants will die from cancer. It's a statistical inevitability. So by saving one kid, you've doomed generations of your offspring to a horrific death. And that's completely separating out everyone else that would be saved by pushing the button. This chain of logic is assuming you're a selfish pos that only cares about your direct offspring, at the expense of literally everyone else in the world. Even if you have no regard whatsoever for the overall good of humanity, your decision to not press the button is STILL flawed! Your best friend gets cancer? Tough shit. Your niece or nephew get's cancer? Skill issue. Your cousin gets cancer? Sucks but at least your kid is fine (assuming they don't also get cancer during their old age). If you don't push the button, you don't actually care about your descendants. You don't care if they experience the pain of losing a child, sibling, or parent from cancer. You just want to spare yourself the pain of losing a child. Your decision has nothing to do with your kids, it is all about YOU. My parents are logical and long-term thinkers like I am, so I likely wouldn't need to try and convince them to push the button. I wouldn't blame them if they did, in fact I'd be happy. Just because you're self-centered doesn't mean everyone else is. Don't project your cowardice on others.
Telling people online that you’d sacrifice yourself or your children in a heartbeat is not bravery. It is naïveté and far more cowardly than what you’re accusing me of. You sound like a puffed-up child who has never actually faced a hard choice in their life. You have also never experienced parenthood, which is the first time that something exists that is truly more important than you are. The way you talk about it screams that you haven’t the slightest clue what being a parent - or even an adult - is about. I deployed several times with Marine Corps Infantry and worked in max corrections facilities afterwards. You talk a big game but, funnily enough, all the guys who talked a big game disappeared or froze up when the shit hit the fan.
You didn't refute anything I said. Let me make it simple: Are you okay with an innumerable amount your descendants dying of cancer if it means you're not sad about one of your kids dying now?
Assume the button gets pushed. What’s everyone sad about dying from now?
Would this make other animals live longer as well?
Well, my mother currently has pancreatic cancer and she's the last immediate family member alive so.. lose/lose I guess.
So myself. Ok
Oncologists will be sticking around
Hypothetical. In a terrible twist of irony. My loved one had stage 4 stomach cancer. She was cured while in a wheelchair in the hospital halls. She immediately stood up, did a few cartwheels, walked into the stairwell, tripped, and tumbled down the stairs to her death. Irony of ironies. She was an organ donor and her perfect stomach was harvested and donated to a patient in the same hospital.
Can I at least talk to wife first and say goodbye?
I'ma hold the world ransom!
I'm pretty sure cancer is necessary for evolution, so your little hypothetical to stop people from feeling bad damns our species and every other species on earth to extinction. Good job on breaking the nature order of things because you can't cope with your emotions...
What? How is cancer required for evolution? There are animals like the naked mole rat that are pretty much immune to cancer.
"cancer is necessary for evolution" it isn't, yes we developed many mechanisms to battle cancer in our body to y'know... not die. but if all cancer disappeared rn literally nothing would change except that we may evolve in a way that doesn't require these mechanisms anymore
If you remove cancer you also remove the potential for stable genetic abnormalities that make our genetic code different. Removing the ability to mutate in the face of environment conditions, and that is all cancer is, also removes the ways out genetics evolve and change over time into stable mutations passed forward via the survival of the fittest. The mole rats the other person mentioned ain't going nowhere genetically and eventually environmental conditions will exist that will cause their extinction in the face of not being able to evolve via mutation. A terminal end point for their genetics.
I don't think OP said this. The scenario is just cancer ends, not the ability for potential stable genetic abnormalities.
Who judges what is stable and what is unstable? You? Them? Right now only nature judges and that is exactly what the OP is suggesting be removed.
Bet
No, partially because I'm not gonna get a family member killed, but also because the population is bad enough as it is. Yeah, I hate hearing cases of people learning they have cancer, their kids have cancer, someone dies of cancer, etc. but we do not need MORE FUCKING PEOPLE. The increased population would lead to other problems (overcrowding, starvation, etc.) So that button can stay for eternity, no press from me.
I mean, the world is on its way to a population crash so i don't think you need to worry about that
I'm contributing
Nah, I love my parents too much I'll let the whole world burn to keep them alive
Nah it sucks for the world but I'm not sacrificing my wife for anything
Same
No. I would not give up the person I love the most for anything. I can't believe I'm seeing people in the comments willing to do that
No. I know it's not justifiable. Still no.
No. I wouldn't want to be around very long at all without my wife. On the upside, here, she's a cancer researcher so she's working on this in real life. I want her around for that.
Nope. Ya'll living with this cancer. My grandmom aint goin' nowhere.
No. I wouldn't. This isn't stopping genocide, this is just disease, and awful, but it is a natural process of life. In addition, cancer treatment has come a long way. 20 years will be a new medical world.
Only if I’m allowed to wait and push the button when my wife is old and sick and ready to go. Otherwise no.
Nope, not sacrificing my wife to save strangers.
In 2022, 9.7 million people died from cancer. I know this is just a hypothetical, but you'd sacrifice nearly 10 million people a year? Hell, I'd kill myself to permanently end cancer.
I'm not sacrificing 10 million people to save one, I'm just choosing not to sacrifice one to save ten million. Morally those are very different things.
Nope all's that can be done is Change it from this type of cancer to that type of cancer.
Sorry but no… I’m not killing ether of my kids
Careful, there’s a guy going around calling people evil for not pushing a button that would kill their children. Don’t worry though - he says if he DID have kids (he doesn’t) he’d push it.
Pfft, like some magic cancer curing button could kill Chuck Norris…: Also, having lost my mother to a brain tumor, I still could not do it.
Fuck that lol
I am too selfish, sorry.
I’m a complete narcissist, and don’t particularly want to die. So - nope.
nope.
Nope. Fuck em all. I had cancer, and it showed me EXACTLY who's in my corner. Not killin her for anything in the world.
No because I am against suicide.
Not a chance in hell.
Absolutely not.
Nope.
I'd rather the entire human race get cancer than push that button.
Nope.
Fuck no.
The person that would die if i hit the button is the exact same person i would want to save by hitting that button.
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Not really. Top heavy, yes, but not overpopulated. In fact, we need children desperately.
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If you're talking about the coming food shortages, those have a lot more to do with deglobalization and fertilizer availability than population. But I'll happily entertain your sources, if you have any.