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Intended Learning Outcomes
Intended Learning Outcomes
Explain moral dilemma as a moral experience
Distinguish between moral dilemma and a false dilemma
Preparation
Preparation
INTRODUCTION:
After learning moral and non-moral standards, you must now have an idea of what a moral experience is. When you find yourself in a moral dilemma, you are in for a moral experience. What is a moral dilemma? This is the main focus of this Lesson.
ACTIVITY:
Read The Pregnant Lady and the Dynamite, then answer the questions given:
A pregnant woman leading a group of five people out of a cave on a coast is stuck in the mouth of that cave. In a short time, high tide will be upon them and unless she is unstuck, they will all be drowned except the woman whose head is out of the cave. Fortunately (or unfortunately), someone has with him a stick of dynamite. There seems no way to get the pregnant woman loose without using the dynamite which will inevitably kill her; but if they do not use it everyone else will drown. What should they do? (http://psychopixi.com/author/pixil)
ANALYSIS
1. What would you do if you were one of the men? Explain why you decided to act that way?
2. The situation or the experience you went through is a moral dilemma. What then is a moral dilemma?
3. Is finding yourself in a moral dilemma, a moral experience? Why or why not?
Presentation
Presentation
Meaning of Moral Dilemma
A moral dilemma is a problem in the decision-making between two possible options, neither of which is absolutely acceptable from an ethical perspective. It is also referred to as an ethical dilemma. The Oxford Dictionary defines ethical dilemma as a "decision-making problem between two possible moral imperatives, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable. It is sometimes called an ethical paradox in moral philosophy." (Oxford Dictionary).
Based on these definitions, moral dilemmas have the following in Common: 1) "the agent is required to do each of two (or more) actions which are morally unacceptable; 2) the agent can do each of the actions; 3) but the agent cannot do both (or all) of the actions. The agent thus seems condemned to moral failure; no matter what she does, she will do something wrong (or fail to do something that she ought to do). This means that moral dilemmas are situations where two or more moral values or duties make demands on the decision-maker, who can only honor one of them, and thus will violate at least one important moral concern, no matter what he or she decides to do. Moral dilemmas present situations where there is tension between moral values and duties that are more or less on equal footing. The decision-maker has to choose between a wrong and another wrong. The decision-maker is a deadlock.
In the case of The Pregnant Lady and the Dynamite, there were two options-use the dynamite and kill the pregnant woman but save the other 5 or don't use the dynamite and all the 5 will drown except the pregnant woman whose head is out. To have a genuine dilemma, one of the conflicting solutions should not override the other. For instance, "... the requirement to protect others from serious harm overrides the requirement to repay one's debts by returning a borrowed item when its owner so demands." Hence,.. "in addition to the features mentioned above, in order to have a genuine moral dilemma it must also be true that neither of the conflicting requirements is overridden"(McConnell,T. 2019). This means that none of the conflicting requirements is solved by the other. The persons involved in the dilemma are in a deadlock. They find themselves in a "damn-if-you-do and damn-if you-don't" situation.
Another example of a moral dilemma is the story from the Bible about King Herod. On his birthday, his step-daughter, Salome danced so well in front of him and the guests at his party that he promised to give her anything she wanted. Salome consulted her mother about what she should wish for, and decided to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The king now had a choice between honoring the promise to his stepdaughter or honoring the life of John the Baptist. And Herod chose to have John the Baptist beheaded.
The king had inadvertently designed a moral trap for himself, a dilemma where whatever he decided to do would be morally wrong.
Meaning of a False Dilemma
On the other hand, a false dilemma is a situation where the decision maker has a moral duty to do one thing, but is tempted or under pressure to do something else. A false dilemma is a choice between a right and a wrong. For example, a lawyer or an accountant can face an opportunity to prioritize self-interest over the client's interest.
What to Do When Faced with a Moral Dilemma
Ultimately, dilemmas are conflicts in the application of moral standards. The question is which moral standards must be followed? In a state of emergency, necessity demands no moral law. You have to decide based on your best judgment or choose based on the principle of lesser evil or greater good or urgency. There are 24 moral dilemmas listed by Pixi's blog. Refer to 25 Moral Dilemmas, Pixi's Blog (retrieved/http://psychopixi.com/author/pixil) and (https://upjourney.com/moral-dilemma-examples-questions-and-scenarios)
Practice
Practice
1. Are these cases examples of moral dilemmas? Defend your answer.
a) Anne is the project manager of a large industrial project in a developing country, run by a Nordic company. On a crucial day for the project, the electricity is suddenly gone from the entire plant. Large quantities of cement are about to congeal in the blenders, and it is crucial to activate them again, quickly. More than a thousand employees are unable to do their work. Anne contacts the local authorities to solve the problem. A bureaucrat turns up at the plant and explains that he can get the electricity back on again very quickly, on the condition that he can bring ten of the company's PCs back to the town hall. There is a desperate shortage of PCs there, and the bureaucrat and his colleagues are therefore unable to provide adequate service to the local community. Thus, he suggests a trade-off PCs for electricity. In this manner, Anne and her company can make a significant contribution to the society in which they operate. Time is of the essence, and Anne has little time to dwell on the alternatives. There is no time to contact top management in her home country to get advice or instructions about what to do, she has to figure this out by herself. If the cement congeals today, it will mean a considerable delay in the project. Several operations will have to be redone, at a high cost, particularly compared to the cost of losing ten PC's that can be easily replaced. Anne also has sympathy with the local bureaucrats and the population they are serving. They will probably make very good use of the PCs. On the other hand, if she gives in to blackmail this time, the same may happen again, at other crucial stages of the project.
Anne faces a difficult choice. What should she do? Anne wants to honor the moral value of finishing the project on time and within budget, but also the moral value of not giving in to blackmail or corruption. One of these values will have to give way at the expense of the other. There is no harmonious way out, where Anne can say that she has done everything right.
b) The Deliberate Infection
Ken is a doctor. One of his patients, whom he has diagnosed as HIV positive, is about to receive a blood transfusion prior to being released from the hospital. He has told Ken, in the confidence of their doctor-patient relationship, that after he gets his transfusion, and his medicine from Ken, he intends to infect as many people as possible with HIV starting that evening.
Because Ken is bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, there is no legal way to stop this man from carrying out his plan. Even if Ken warned the police, they would not be able to arrest him, since his medical information is protected.
It occurs to Ken that he could contaminate his medication by putting an untraceable poison in it that will kill him before he gets a chance to infect others.
Should Ken poison this man in order to prevent him from spreading HIV? (Source: http://psychopixi.com/author/pixil)
c)The Unfaithful Wife
You are an emergency worker that has just been called to the scene of an accident. When you arrive you see that the car belongs to your wife. Fearing the worst you rush over, only to see she is trapped in her car with another man. He is obviously her lover, with whom she's been having an affair. You reel back in shock, devastated by what you have just found out. As you step back, the wreck in front of you comes into focus. You see your wife is seriously hurt and she needs attention straight away. Even if she gets immediate attention there's a very high chance she will dies. You look at the seat next to her and see her lover He's bleeding heavily from a wound in the neck and you need to stem the flow of blood immediately.
If you attend to your wife, her lover will bleed to death, and you may not be able to save her anyway. If you work on the lover, you can save his life, but your wife will definitely die.
Who should you choose to work on? (Source: http://psychopixi. com/author/pixil)
d) You are an English teacher at a high school. One of your pupils is a very bright and gifted girl whom you have always enjoyed teaching. She has always achieved A grades throughout her school years, and is now in her final year and getting ready to graduate. Unfortunately, she has been very ill this term, and missed several weeks of schooling. She has just turned in a report which is worth 40% of her final grade, but you realize that she did not write it herself- she has copied a report found online and tried to pass it off as her own work. . you report her plagiarisation to the school authorities, it will be entered on her permanent record and she will no longer be eligible to attend the prestigious university that she has dreamed of attending all through high school. If you refuse to accept the report, her final mark will be very poor and may harm her chances of being chosen for this university. If you mark the paper as though you believed it was her own work, she will do very well, and stand every chance of getting her desired university place. What should you do? (Source: http://psychopixi.com/author/pixil)
2. Are these moral dilemmas?
Taking credit for others' work in order to get promoted
Manufacturing and distributing fake drugs for profit
Offering a client a worse product for bigger profit
Utilizing inside knowledge for your own profit
3. As a group/individual, compose your own moral dilemma.
Performance
Performance
A. Write T if the statement is True and F if is False.
_____1. A person or persons in a moral dilemma can easily choose which course of action to take.
_____2. In a moral dilemma, one course of action between two options is obviously immoral while the other choice is moral.
_____3. A person involved in a moral dilemma can choose both options.
_____4. In a moral dilemma, a person has a choice for the good, only that because he/she is tempted he/she ends up choosing that which is not good.
_____5. In a moral dilemma, a person is torn between two no good options.
B. Divergent Roads
Do the divergent roads tell what a moral dilemma is? Explain your answer
REFLECTION:
What is a moral dilemma that you have experienced directly or vicariously (from reading)? Are you happy with how you addressed the moral dilemma you went through? Or do you agree with how the moral dilemma that you read was addressed? Write your reflections.
SUMMARY:
A moral dilemma Is a "decision making problem between two possible moral imperatives, neither of which Is unambiguously acceptable or preferable.
A moral dilemma is a situation where a person has the moral obligation to choose between two options both based on moral standards, but he/she cannot choose both, and choosing one means violating the other.
In a moral dilemma, one is caught between two options. It is a "damn if you-do and damn-if-you-don't situation. One is in a deadlock.
False dilemmas are situations where the decision-maker has a moral duty to do one thing, but is tempted or under pressure to do something else. A false dilemma is a choice between a right and a Wrong unlike a moral dilemma where both choices are wrong.
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