who would you save? (revisited)

I originally posted the majority of this post on my myspace some time ago. I thought it sparked enough interest and debate that it was worth revisiting. My wife and I were having this discussion some time ago...I asked her the following question: If you had the chance to either save me or our firstborn child, which would you save? It was intriguing to me because our answers were different, though not shocking. She said she would save the child because her bond to her own child would be so strong it would be instinctual. (For the record, I would want her to save the child over me.) I said that I would save her because a man always looks to protect his wife. Plus, we could procreate and produce more kids rather than having a kid without one parent. When I asked other men and women about this, I discovered that most of the women sided with Polly and most of the men sided with me, with some exceptions. Therefore I posited that decisions to this question would be based on gender. However, upon posting the original blog post, I got the mixed responses. I have listed some of the responses below: Guy - "If it was me, it would be very tough, VERY tough. But in the end I think I would pick my wife." Girl - "This is a very hard question to answer. I know from experience that true love is the worst thing to lose, but the thought of losing a child seems unbearable. I think in the end that I would save my child and in a way a piece of my husband would always live in them." Guy - "definitely save the wifey" Girl - "Hmmm. That's a tough one. My mom taught me that your husband comes before any other person in your life, even your children. So although I'm not an expert in the area of having husbands or babies, as of right now I'd go with the husband. If I chose to save the baby, then I'd have no one to console and support the loss of my husband. If I chose to save the husband, I can make more babies, and have the emotional support to cope with the loss of the baby. I'm with you Mike." Girl - "You can always have more kids, but you can never replace a spouse. " Guy - "I would save the child. You can always find another wife. Just joking. I would save the kid. Give him a chance at life. " There were more responses than these (some good ones) and you can check them out here. Basically though, I got different responses from two married women with kids, different responses from a few different single guys, and different responses from a few different single girls. I understand that it's only hypothetical, but it's an intriguing topic to me. I would love to hear from more people on this so I can get a better sense as to why different people (even in similar situations) respond differently.