The Policeman's Dilemma
Taken from A Bit Like Jesus
Description
WEEK 3
Compassion
The Policeman’s Dilemma
Five years ago I served on a panel of religious representatives giving evidence to a Select Committee on Assisted Dying. One of the committee members asked us all to respond to the following story:
An armed policeman chanced upon a bad road accident in which a truck had caught fire. The truck driver was trapped in his cab and could not escape. As the flames started to reach his cab he shouted out for help but no one could get anywhere near because of the intense heat of the fire. The cab started to burn. He was in agony and cried out to the policeman: ‘Please, please shoot me, I am going to die anyway!’ Should the policeman have shot or should he just have watched as the truck driver slowly burned to death?...