There are twenty men trapped at the bottom of the sea in a submarine. Help will not arrive for a week. There is only enough oxygen left for about three days, but the oxygen will last five men for a week. What should the captain decide, and how? Five men were picked to live and the rest were killed without knowing. Considering all the facts, Lieutenant-Commander Oram should be innocent. The men were in the submarine when the explosion went off, and damaged the ship. The explosion was most likely caused by an acoustic or magnetic mine. The propellers were blown off and the steering gears were jammed. The submarine was on he tip of a sandbank. One man died, and everyone got bruises or scratches.
Since only five men could live out of twenty, fifteen had to die, and were killed with poisoned bottles of whiskey. The men that died didn’t know that they were about to die. Oram picked the men that were married and had families. He even killed himself. The definition of murder is “First degree murder is planned and deliberate. ” Instead of picking the married men, Oram could have randomly picked five men, and make it more fair. Military context could also come into play with the verdict. Lieutenant-Commander Oram could be ruled guilty, because he planned, and eliberately commited murder, which is against the law. He committed first degree murder on fifteen men. The rest of the crew didn’t know Oram’s decision, and didn’t even get a chance to live longer.
It was also possible for Oram to not save anyone, because then no would have to be killed. He could have also told the fifteen men that got killed before hand what was about to happen. Lieutenant-Commander Oram could also very well be found innocent, because instead of just letting everyone die, he saved five lives, and saving five people is better than none. They were also under military context and were prepared to die, since they re in the army. He did it with good intentions and he also didn’t get selfish and killed himself as well. He tried saving as many people as possible. If he had told the fifteen that were killed, then they might have had bad reactions to that, and it was best to do it without them having to feel any more pain. Oram should be innocent because overall what he did was the right thing in saving as many people as possible, and having good intentions. He did his best in handling the situation, and this case should be taken a look at specially and the law shouldn’t be strict and straight forward.
