Problem
You are the elected mayor of a small village on an island which has been occupied by a foreign power as part of the war it is waging against your country. A colonel of the occupying army has been sent to the island to deal with a group of three resistance fighters who have killed four of his soldiers. He has taken 80 hostages from among the villagers and has had them marched into the village square. Two of the captured guerrillas are already in the square under armed guard. The third guerrilla, and two girls from the village who had helped him hide, have already been tortured and executed. Their grossly mutilated bodies are in full view of all the hostages. The colonel hands you a machine gun (which turns out to be unloaded) and orders you to beat the two surviving captives to death in front of the villagers. If you do this at once, the colonel says he will spare the lives of the 80 hostages (sending them instead to a labour camp), but, if you refuse, then you and all 80 hostages will be instantly mowed down by his soldiers' machine guns. You must decide in the next few minutes.
What should be done? And why is it the right thing to do? How would the different ethical theories deal with these questions? Is there more satisfactory than the others in suggesting how the various characters (mayor, soldiers, colonel) could do the morally right thing in this desperate situation?