I strongly suspect that most people who risk their lives do so precisely because it preserves their identity. There may also be a EDT aspect here where I value {me who would rush into a burning building to save another’s life} more than {me who would not}. So if you have your identity invested at all into being a good person in that kind of way, I don’t think this thought experiment will be isomorphic to the one in which you’re under dangerous surgery.
There’s also the matter that me-changed-enough-to-be-a-different-person is a new person, at least to the extent of the change, while someone trapped in a burning building already exists. Most people (I think for good reasons even on simple act utilitarianism, but that’s another matter) value preserving life over creating new life.
I strongly suspect that most people who risk their lives do so precisely because it preserves their identity. There may also be a EDT aspect here where I value {me who would rush into a burning building to save another’s life} more than {me who would not}. So if you have your identity invested at all into being a good person in that kind of way, I don’t think this thought experiment will be isomorphic to the one in which you’re under dangerous surgery.
There’s also the matter that me-changed-enough-to-be-a-different-person is a new person, at least to the extent of the change, while someone trapped in a burning building already exists. Most people (I think for good reasons even on simple act utilitarianism, but that’s another matter) value preserving life over creating new life.