[PokerNeophyte]

David,

I think this question falls in a genuine gray area. Six hours is enough time to have some value and, I think human life is a lot more valuable than the avoidance of doggy pain. Of course, there's no way to derive an euation figuring out an "exchange rate" between the two. For someone not inclined to perform the procedure, I would point out the value to the dying man in having just a little more time to be with his family and the value to his family. Of course, I think one can only point out reasons why human life is very valuable; I think it would be harder to argue for a claim like, one minute of human life is worth 10 hours of excrutiating doggy pain.

Even if an exchange rate is out of reach, I think you can make your point more vividly if the medicine requires torturing 1,000 dogs and will extend the man's life by only one second: Avoiding some large amounts of doggy pain will be more valuable than maintaining some small amounts of human life. Therefore, human life does not have the absolute value that some people might like to place on it.

I would be interested to hear from the people who thought they held that view whether they would be willing to torture the 1,000 dogs for the extra second of human life. And, if not, I'd be curious to hear whether they really think their commitments about the value of human life would require them to hold such a view. I'd be surprised to discover that a religious system actually took a stand on such far out cases.