Dr Herdwick's Trolley Problem

Dr Herdwick's Trolley Problem
A fable in the time of coronavirus.

One of the first events we had in the shop after Atticus reopened in Lancaster was a talk about the Trolley Problem given by Dr Andrew Churchill of the University of Central Lancashire. The Trolley Problem is an ethical thought experiment popularised by philosopher Phillipa Foot and is particularly relevant in these times of the coronavirus when difficult decisions have to be made about the allocation of scarce resources. Some of you know that for a long time I worked as a Creative Writing tutor, also ran a writers’ group at Atticus and that I have always written fiction. I started when, as a young person, I worked (briefly) at The Ministry of Public Trustees in London and needed more to do than the disposal of dead people’s property involved.
Andrew’s talk came back to me because of the pandemic, especially when one or two surgeries made headlines by writing to older people suggesting they might consider staying at home if they became very ill with C-19 in order to ease the burden on the NHS thought to be likely to face problems in terms of availability of ventilators.

The result of my thinking about the Trolley Problem is the story I am offering you as a serial. I hope you enjoy it enough to keep reading to the end.

As an experiment I am releasing the story in three parts as a flip book and a downloadable PDF.
I will only release the second part when I have received emails from ten readers requesting me to do so. The third part will be released when I have received another ten requests from new readers and the last part when I have heard from another ten new readers.
So if you enjoy the story and want to read all three parts you will have to help me find least forty readers. You can do this by passing on the link to the Atticus website or downloading and forwarding the PDF below.

The story is free but if you have enjoyed it please visit the Facebook page of Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Centre. A small donation would be greatly appreciated but a simple 'like' is enough.

At the bottom of the page you will find a few links to philosophers mentioned in the story and a few who are not.

Dr Herdwick's Trolley Problem© is free to distribute for non commercial use without textual alteration.

Dr Herdwick's Trolley Problem Part 1
If you would like to read part 2 please email [email protected] and when we have ten readers we will upload it.

Dr Herdwick's Trolley Problem Part 2
If you would like to read part 3 please email [email protected] and when we have ten readers we will upload it.

Dr Herdwick's Trolley Problem Part 3