[Zygote]

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A father see's that his son needs a transplant or he will die. He has no medical insurance and no way of paying for the procedure for his son which costs $25,000.

Some goofy scientist tells him that if he can retrieve a rare poisonous bird from the wild he'll give him $25,000. Let's say the odds of him dying in the process are 1000 to 1.


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If the father takes the risk, this obviously only means that he believes taking that risk is better than not. To restate, HE believes that HE could not live with himself without having made that choice, therefore, he decides to save his son. He takes the risk because he believes the possibility of success weighs against the consequences. The small chance he survives and saves his son will be the reward, while on top of the chance that he doesn't succeed, he also feels he could not live with himself having not taken the risk.

If the father decides not to take the risk, this obviously means that he believes not taking the risk is the better choice. This is probably because he holds little value to his sons life and/or assumes he will feel no remorse.


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Without love or human emotion the "logical" answer is simple. Save your own butt! Luckily, that's not how this world works.


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Thats exactly how this world works. Notice that whether or not the father chooses to save his son, he is always acting in his own best interest.