We don't know what Adam's motives were for eating the apple. As best as I can tell, the idea that Adam had a noble motive for partaking of the forbidden tree originated with John Milton in Paradise Lost. I think it's an interesting theory, yet it is just as possible that he ate the fruit because he succumbed to temptation. After all, the Bible says it was pleasing to the eye.
A problem with the theory is the suggestion that Eve sinned. Is this true? The Bible says she was deceived (1 Tim 2), but where does it say she sinned? In her confusion, she clearly made a bad choice. Adam knowingly disobeyed God's direct command. Thus Romans 5 says that sin entered the world through Adam's transgression.
To answer the question of what would have happened had Adam not eaten the fruit, I think the little the Bible has to say on this subject suggests that sin would not have entered the world bringing with it death.
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