What If...? (NO Spam This Time)

So, my mother and I were talking a while ago about questions that are hard to answer. One of which was...

"You're in a boat with your significant other, your child, and your mother(or father). Suddenly the boat begins to sink and you're able to save only one person. Who do you save?"

I'm interested in your answers...and your reasoning behind them.

Haha...I don't even know if this thread is going to be a success or not, but might as well take a shot at it, right?

-Asylum

This isn't the kind of situation where you could, or would want to, make a concious, "rational", decision. Ends up being pure chance. Whoever you're holding/whoever grabs your hand first. I know I'd never say "no, if I save you, I'd have to let XX to die, and they're more important".

Now let's hypothesize an instinctive decision. We can't make assumptions about "who you love most", we can only make guesses at evolutionary benefits. If you think that way, the child will probably be saved, especially your own child, "guaranteeing" the survival of your own genes. Though I could even imagine the partner to "win" in a strongly monogamous culture.

But in the end, the question boils down to "whose life is more important?". IMHO, that question is not only hard to answer, it's impossible to answer. I might even go so far as to say you shouldn't even try to seriously find an answer.

O_O

You know what, that's a nice view of it. That most certainly goes deeper into the entire question. >>;

Ignoring instinctive decisions and evolutionary benefits, who would you end up choosing, and why?

I must say you're very intelligent.

I wouldn't chose. That's not a decision I'm willing to make. I don't have the right to decide who lives and who dies. Grab the closest hand, then dive back for the others and possibly die trying. There's no time for and no morality in weighing up one life against the other.

*le sigh* True. ._.

I would probably do the same as free zombie

I said before that I would've chosen my kid.
Everyone else,I guess has already lived life.

Kids are the future...but you can always have more.
You only have one mother. But she's lived life.
Your significant other. Idk. ._.

i would save myself, because I am like that.

Freeze the lake with my ice-ray. It's just logical, really.

I would save my significant other. I do love my mother but she has lived life. I wouldn't have a child because I can't have a child. If I did have a child... IDK...

I would personally do what I could to save everyone, If one person had to die, I'd let myself die.

Ive always wanted to die to save someone else, so i would ensure someone elses life instead of mine. just as haggard chose.