I'll start with the vanilla scenario:
It is easy to lean towards the option of pulling the lever to save the five by harming the one. That is very utilitarian, the greater good for the greater number of people. One dying is not as bad as five dying. I would be inclined to potentially make that choice, but something everyone in my class agreed with was either way it is a shit decision to make, and to show, I'll mention the counter argument.
The counter argument is heavily based on the idea of individual rights. An individual has a right to life. That is the most basic human right. By not stepping in, you are not choosing for them to die. In the end, they were going to die anyways and while it is noble to save a life, technically you don't have a legal responsibility to rush down and pull the lever. But by pulling the lever, you are actively making a choice to end someone's life. That one person at the end is only going to die if you make the decision. By interfering, you, by that logic, murdered someone. But by not pulling the lever, technically you are not the one who kills the five. It is whoever was driving the trolley or tied them to the tracks, whatever.
Then again, a counter to everything I just said there is that inaction can be an action in itself so either way, you may be "responsible."
So, it is a shit decision, and even if I pull the lever to save the five, it will not sit well with me.
The second, I'd be of course more tempted to save a loved one. Selfish or not, we all would be tempted to do so also. That death would hit harder on me.
Also the third scenario, I would be tempted to save the younger person honestly because of something I remember my grandfather mentioned before. I mentioned his health has been up and down, and even before my Grandmother got sick and passed, he was in and out of the hospital for a while and even once nearly died. He also had a DNR. One of the times I visited him with my brother he mentioned how at this point he considers himself to be in "bonus time" for his life. He got married, raised a family, saw his kids go on and some of them started families too, he saw my brother and I graduate from high school and go onto university for the first time in our family's history and my cousin recently started high school. He had a lifetime of experiences and those older people, even if they were healthy, at least have had their life.
Finally the fourth. I think I would be tempted to make the option to save myself. In the scenario, the government does not appear to be one which respects the rights of individuals. In a world where there is no justice, at times it just becomes a matter of survival, almost like a Hobbesian view of the world. Survive so that hopefully one day justice may return.
