Discuss Utilitarianism vs. Deontologicalism

The problem comes up in discussions of ethics and moral choice, pitting the idea of responsibility against the measurement of good by an end result. On the one hand, it might seem obvious that the deaths of five would be a worse result than the death of an individual. On the other hand, in order to change course, you have to make the active decision to put that doomed individual in the path of the trolley.

The school of thought that killing the one person to save the five is usually aligned with utilitarianism (the belief that the best actions are those that result in the greatest good for the greatest number of people). Another school, that of deontological ethics, argues that an action is inherently right or wrong regardless of the consequences. This school would favor against taking the action that results in the killing of the individual on the other track.

The trolley dilemmas vividly distilled the distinction between two different concepts of morality: that we should choose the action with the best overall consequences (in philosophy-speak, utilitarianism is the most well-known example of this), like only one person dying instead of five, and the idea that we should always adhere to strict duties, like “never kill a human being.” The subtle differences between the scenarios provided helped to articulate influential concepts, like the distinction between actively killing someone versus passively letting them die, that continue to inform contemporary debates in law and public policy. The trolley problem has also been, and continues to be, a compelling teaching tool within philosophy
— Lauren Cassani Davis, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2015