i had written an extremely long, drawn out and detailed reply, (which was perfect, infallible, and it would work...) but pressed previous thread with my fat thumbs, (... but the earth was destroyed before she could get to a telephone and tell anyone.) i cant be bothered typing it all again so heres the bullet points-

1. why is everyone suddenly debating the legality? in this situation the legal consequences wouldn't even come to my mind, save the five, any procurator with common sense wouldn't even take it o court anyway.

2. the opinion of my peers however would bother me (no i'm not tagging my torrents with "i let 5 people die to save 1") i couldn't tell my family i walked away and let the 5 die for the sake of killing 1. i couldn't expect my friends to respect me if i told them i'd done that.

3. walking away and absolving yourself of any moral responsibility on the grounds that "well i didn't do anything" to me shows an inhuman detachment bordering on psychotic :P

4. the doctor and military commander analogies aren't as relevant. their professional ethics will have been conditioned. a doctor takes a vow to do no harm and should stick to it. a military commander can kill 600 people from 100 miles away who were completely uinaware before breakfast, and sit down to his cornflakes thinking its a good start to the day.