Would You Kill Baby Hitler

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Part of a series on Adolf Hitler. [View Related Entries]

About

Would You Kill Baby Hitler is a thought experiment which ponders the ethics of traveling back in time to kill Adolf Hitler as an infant in order to prevent the holocaust.

Origin

The exact origin of the thought experiment is unknown. The idea of traveling back in time to kill Adolf Hitler is a trope^[1] used in science fiction and is commonly associated with the proposed grandfather paradox.^[2] Additionally, the dilemma bears many similarities to the "trolley problem"^[4] ethical thought experiment, which asks participants if they would kill one person to save five others. In 1996, the novel Making History^[6] by Stephen Fry was released, in which the protagonist travels back in time to deliver a permanent contraceptive pill to Hitler's father. On October 2nd, 2002, Season 1 Episode 5 "Cradle of Darkness" of the science fiction television series The Twilight Zone was broadcast, in which a woman travels back in time to kill Adolf Hitler as a baby (shown below). The earliest known mention of killing Hitler as an infant online was posted in the Free Republic Forums^[5] by user DaveLoneRanger on April 18th, 2006, asking readers "Would you kill baby Hitler to prevent the extermination of millions?"

Spread

On May 14th, 2007, YouTuber John Green uploaded a video discussing the thought experiment (shown below, left). On November 26th, 2008, YouTuber Philip DeFranco posted a video about the Hitler dilemma (shown below, right).

On September 10th, 2010, the ModDDb Forums^[7] member PeterHat submitted a poll titled "Would You Kill Baby Hitler?" On May 31st, 2011, YouTuber David Pakman uploaded an interview segment titled "Morality with Motamedi," in which he asks co-host Louis Motamedi if he would kill Hitler as an infant (shown below, left). On July 24th, 2013, the Big Think YouTube channel uploaded a video featuring psychologist Kevin Dutton, in which he discusses the Hitler thought experiment along with other moral dilemmas (shown below, right). On September 7th, 2014, Redditor dantheman757 submitted a post about the baby Hitler dilemma to the /r/Showerthoughts^[9] subreddit, where it received upwards of 4,400 votes (94% upvoted) and 770 comments prior to being archived.

2015 Presidential Primary

On October 23rd, 2015, the NYT Mag^[3] tweet a graph depicting readers responses to a survey asking "could you kill baby Hitler?" (shown below).

On November 6th, the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal^[8] posted a comic about the dilemma from a moral relativist perspective (shown below).

On November 9th, The Huffington Post^[10] posted an interview with Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, during which he answered "Hell yeah, I would!" in response to the baby Hitler question (shown below, left). On the following day, YouTuber PFT Commenter uploaded footage of Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson saying "I'm not in favor of aborting anyone" when asked if he would approve of aborting baby Hitler (shown below, right).