Absolutely. And I must answer honestly: I have no idea how I would handle any of the abovementioned scenarios.

As I child I imagined all sorts of life or death situations and wondered how I would react to each one. I almost never was the hero in my mind.

I was so frightened of being killed by a gun that I figured a gun in my face would make me pee myself with fear. Now I'm 36 and on three separate occasions I've had the misfortune of staring down the barrel of a gun, and my reaction every time was completely different to my imaginings.

All I can say is that I hope nobody ever has to make a choice like this (hope in one hand and poop in the other and see which one fills up first as my dad would say) and I am thankful that up until now I've never had to knowingly decide the fate of another human.

I've swerved over animals before to avoid great damage to other life or property and felt really quite sad about it. I can't imagine what killing a person (without powerful motive [not a defense of murder just understanding]) to save another.

Jeez I'm a ramblin again. Thanks for making me think a bit more outside my head today as concerns death. My own is a usual meditation for me but I never ponder the choice of life or death over others.