I have a strong feeling I would, I've always had a type of hero complex since I was a kid. Always coming to help or doing anything I could to help others even if it meant making some sacrifices. Maybe its more like a martyr complex.
Damn hope the situation never arrives but if it does I think I'll make the right move.
The answer for this question really depends on a persons personality and evaluation of the importance of the value of their own life versus the value of the life they may save to society and the human race. There is no such thing as true altruism. In the most basic sense, everyone is concerned only about the survival of themselves, their family/tribe/society, and the human race. A person would only reasonably sacrifice their own life if they were not as important to the survival of their society and the human race as the person they were saving. Humans tend to not be reasonable creatures, so they may do it out of some sense of duty or delusion of emotion, or something like that, or just to cause people to think highly of them.
That's a lot to consider in the small amount of time you would have to decide if you are going to save this persons life by giving up your own. Most people would act on instinct, so what would basically decide it would be weather or not the emotional attachment to the person in danger exceeds the instinct for individual survival.
I don't think anyone could know this until the occasion actually arose, for a few reasons, among them that I don't think most people accurately gauge their emotional attachments, and also that most of us don't face life-or-death situations very commonly at all, and as such wouldn't know how we would react when faced with them.
I'd like to think I'd do whatever was most rational at the time.
I don't think there is anyone special enough in my life that I'd be willing to risk my life for, so I can't even begin to answer that question until I find someone like that.
No. My own safety always comes first. I couldn't even imagine risking my life for any of my loved ones (family), what more to strangers. I value my life more than anything else in this world so there's no way, NO WAY that I'll take any uncalculated risks that could potentially land me six feet under.
That's my genuine answer to the question, there's no ifs and buts. If right here and now, at this very moment, I see an old man crossing the street with a very fast vehicle approaching, I wouldn't even flinch. I'll probably just turn my back and walk away, leaving it up to fate or a wannabe hero to do the "risking-of-ones-life-for-another" part. Call me evil, fag, or whatever you'd like but at least I'm no liar.
Wait a sec... I feel like I've already answered the same question not so long ago, only in a different manner.