Moral Dilemmas

1. The Trolley Problem ADRIAN DAVID

Situation 1: There is a trolley coming down the tracks and ahead, there are five people
tied to the tracks and are unable to move. The trolley will continue coming and will kill
the five people. There is nothing you can do to rescue the five people EXCEPT that
there is a lever. If you pull the lever, the train will be directed to another track, which has
ONE person tied to it. You have two choices:
(a) Do nothing and the five people will die
(b) Or pull the lever and save the five people, but that one person will die.

Did you make your choice? Well then consider this similar situation:

Situation 2: ALEJANDRO C.

There is a trolley coming down the tracks and ahead, there are five people tied to the
tracks and are unable to move. The trolley will continue coming and will kill the five
people. However, in this situation, you are standing on a bridge above the train tracks
and you can see the train coming. There is a man standing next to you, who is so
enormous and heavy that if he places himself in front of the oncoming train, it will hit
and kill him but the train will stop. So you have two choices:
(a) Do nothing and the five people will die.
(b) Push the big guy down the bridge. He will be killed but will stop the trolley and save
the five people.

The ironic part about this problem is that while most people would choose the option (b)
for the first situation, they will choose option (a) for the second situation, when
technically, in both situations, you are sacrificing one man to save the lives of five
people.

3. The Prisoner’s Dilemma ANGELA MARIA A.

You are a member of a gang and you have been arrested with another member of your
gang. Both of you are confined away from each other and you have no way of
communicating with the other member. The police does not have enough evidence to
convict both of you with major charges and instead offer you and the other member a
bargain. You have two choices:
(a) You can remain silent
(b) Or betray the other member and testify that he has committed the crime.

Then there are three outcomes:

(a) If you betray the other member and he remains silent, you will be set free and he will
serve 3 years in prison. (But this also works vice versa. If you remain silent and he
betrays you, you will serve 3 years in prison)
(b) If you betray the other member, and he betrays you too, you both serve 2 years in
prison
(c) If you and the other member both remain silent, you both only serve one year in
prison.

What would you do?

25 Moral Dilemmas

Moral dilemmas are thought experiments which ask you to imagine a difficult situation

and decide what you think the morally correct course of action would be. There are no

truly ‘right’ answers to these questions, as they often ask you to compare two different

moral imperatives and choose which one you feel is most important.
For example, if we accept that it is morally correct to never torture a living creature, and

that it is morally correct to save a human’s life if you have the ability to do so, how do

you decide what to do if you can only save a human’s life by torturing someone else?

Read through these 25 moral dilemmas, and have a think about what you might do in
each situation.

The Trapped Mining Crew – ANGELA MARIA L.

Heather is part of a four-person mining expedition. There is a cave-in and the four of

them are trapped in the mine. A rock has crushed the legs of one of her crew members

and he will die without medical attention. She’s established radio contact with the

rescue team and learned it will be 36 hours before the first drill can reach the space she

is trapped in.

She is able to calculate that this space has just enough oxygen for three people to

survive for 36 hours, but definitely not enough for four people. The only way to save the

other crew members is to refuse medical aid to the injured crew member so that there

will be just enough oxygen for the rest of the crew to survive.

Should Heather allow the injured crew member to die in order to save the lives of the

remaining crew members?

The Runaway Trolley – ANGIE CAROLINA

A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workmen who will be killed if

the trolley proceeds on its present course. Molly is on a footbridge over the tracks, in

between the approaching trolley and the five workmen. Next to her on this footbridge is

a stranger who happens to be very large.

If she does nothing the trolley will proceed, causing the deaths of the five workmen. The

only way to save the lives of these workmen is to push this stranger off the bridge and

onto the tracks below, where his large body will stop the trolley, causing his death.

Should Molly push the stranger onto the tracks in order to save the five workmen?

The Deliberate Infection CHRISTIAN

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?

The Hostage Ecologists DEISY LILIANA

Tom is part of a group of ecologists who live in a remote stretch of jungle. The entire

group, which includes eight children, has been taken hostage by a group of paramilitary

terrorists. One of the terrorists takes a liking to Tom. He informs Tom that his leader

intends to kill him and the rest of the hostages the following morning.
He is willing to help Tom and the children escape, but as an act of good faith he wants

Tom to torture and kill one of his fellow hostages whom he does not like. If Tom refuses

his offer, all the hostages including the children and Tom will die. If he accepts his offer,

then the others will die in the morning but Tom and the eight children will escape.

Should Tom torture and kill one of his fellow hostages in order to escape from the

terrorists and save the lives of the eight children?

The Life Insurance Policy ELKIN

Mary is in a hospital lounge waiting to visit a sick friend. A young man sitting next to

Mary explains that his father is very ill. The doctors believe that he has a week to live at

most. He explains further that his father has a substantial life insurance policy that

expires at midnight.

If his father dies before midnight, this young man will receive a very large sum of

money. He says that the money would mean a great deal to him and his family, and that

no good will come from his father’s living a few more days. After talking with him Mary

can tell this man is in desperate need of the money to feed his family. The man asks

Mary to go up to his father’s room and smother his father with a pillow.

Should Mary kill this man’s father in order to get money for the man and his family?

The Submarine Crew ENRIQUE

Mark is a crewperson on a marine-research submarine traveling underneath a large

iceberg. An onboard explosion has damaged the ship, killed and injured several

crewmembers. Additionally, it has collapsed the only access corridor between the upper
and lower parts of the ship. The upper section, where Mark and most of the others are

located, does not have enough oxygen remaining for all of them to survive until Mark

has reached the surface. Only one remaining crewmember is located in the lower

section, where there is enough oxygen.

There is an emergency access hatch between the upper and lower sections of the ship.

If released by an emergency switch, it will fall to the deck and allow oxygen to reach the

area where Mark and the others are. However, the hatch will crush the crewmember
below, since he was knocked unconscious and is lying beneath it. Mark and the rest of

the crew are almost out of air though, and they will all die if Mark does not do this.

Should Mark release the hatch and crush the crewmember below to save himself and

the other crew members?

The Baby or The Townspeople GLORIA JIMENA

Enemy soldiers have taken over Jane’s village. They have orders to kill all remaining

civilians over the age of two. Jane and some of the townspeople have sought refuge in

two rooms of the cellar of a large house. Outside Jane hears the voices of soldiers who

have come to search the house for valuables. Jane’s baby begins to cry loudly in the

other room.

His crying will summon the attention of the soldiers who will spare Jane’s baby’s life, but

will kill Jane and the others hiding in both rooms.

If Jane turns on the noisy furnace to block the sound, the other room will become

uncomfortably hot for adults and children, but deadly for infants.
To save her and the others Jane must activate the furnace, which will kill her baby.

Should Jane overheat her baby in order to save herself and the other townspeople?

The Overloaded Lifeboat HECTOR ADOLFO

Doug is on a cruise ship when there is a fire on board, and the ship has to be

abandoned. The lifeboats are carrying many more people than they were designed to

carry. The lifeboat he’s in is sitting dangerously low in the water – a few inches lower

and it will sink.

The seas start to get rough, and the boat begins to fill with water. A group of old people

are in the water and ask Doug to throw them a rope so they can come aboard the

lifeboat. It seems to Doug that the boat will sink if it takes on any more passengers.

Should Doug refuse to throw the rope in order to save himself and the other lifeboat

passengers?

The Hospital Ventilation JAIME EDUARDO

Carrie is a doctor working in a hospital. Due to an accident in the building next door,

there are deadly fumes rising up through the hospital’s ventilation system. In a certain

room of the hospital are four of her patients. In another room there is one of her

patients. If she does nothing the fumes will rise up into the room containing the four

patients and cause their deaths.

The only way to avoid the deaths of these patients is to hit a switch that will cause the

fumes to bypass the room containing the four patients. As a result of doing this, the

fumes will enter the room containing the single patient (against her will). If she does this,

the woman will die, but the other four patients will live.

Should Carrie hit the switch in order to save four of her patients?

The Unfaithful Wife JHON EDWIN

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’ll die. You look at the seat next to her and see her lover. He’s bleeding

heavily from a wound to 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?

The Incriminating Email JHONATAN / JESUS

You are the network administrator for a rather large company. You have a young family

and need your job to support them. Part of your responsibility as a network

administrator is to monitor the emails for the organization. Usually this just means

occasionally allowing through emails for staff members that have been accidentally

blocked by the spam filters.

One day you get a helpdesk request from a staff member asking for an email to get

released. Normally it’s standard procedure, except this time the request has come from
the wife of a very good friend of yours. You recognize the name on the helpdesk

request so quickly attend to the problem. As part of the procedure you need to manually

open up the email to ensure that it isn’t actually spam. You find that it turns out to be an

email to your friend’s wife from her lover. You scan the rest of the contents of the email

and there is no doubt that she has been having an affair for some time now.

You release the email, but you can’t decide what to do now. Your initial reaction is to

call your friend up and tell him about the email, however you quickly realize that

company policy is very strict about revealing the contents of staff emails, and you will

certainly lose your job if your boss finds out.

In any case you know that revealing this information presents great risk, because even

if you don’t do it directly, there is a good chance that the dots will be joined somewhere

along the line and you will be found out. However you feel that by not telling your friend

you are helping his wife to get away with adultery and this troubles you greatly.

What should you do?

The Pregnant Lady and The Dynamite KAROL DAYANNA

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?

The Drowning Children MARIA ALEJANDRA

You and your family are going away for the weekend. Your daughter is 7 and is best

friends with your niece, who is also 7. Your families are very close and your daughter

asks if your niece can come with you on your holiday. You have been on holidays

together before and don’t see any problem, so you agree.

You arrive at your holiday destination and the house you are staying at backs onto a

beach. The girls ask if they can go for a swim. You tell them that they have to wait until

you have unpacked the car, but they can play on the sand directly in front of the beach.

They run down to the sand, and you begin to unpack the car. After about 5 minutes, you

hear screaming coming from the direction of the beach and it sounds like the girls.

You run down to see what the matter is, and you discover that they hadn’t listened to

you and have gone for a swim. There is no one else on the beach and the girls are

caught in a rip tide.

The girls are really struggling, particularly your niece who isn’t as strong a swimmer as

your daughter is. You swim out quickly, but when you get there, you realize that there is

no way you will be able to get both the girls back to the shore on your own.

You need to decide which of the girls you will rescue first, you have enough strength

and energy to rescue them both, but you can only do it one at a time. You look at the

two girls, and your niece is really struggling to hold her head above water and you know

if you take your daughter back first, there will be little or no chance that she will survive.

Your daughter is struggling also, but is much stronger in the water and you estimate that

if you take your niece back to shore first, there’s probably a 50% chance that your

daughter will be able to stay afloat long enough for you return, but you simply don’t

know how long she will hold on for.

Who should you save first?

The Bali Drugs Charge MARIA CAMILA

MARINO
OSCAR EDUARDO

You are on holiday in Bali with your wife and 18 year old son. You have been there for a

week and are ready to head home. All three of you are at the airport getting ready to

board your plane, when an armed officer comes around with a sniffer dog. You have all

your bags on a trolley, and the dog sniffs at both your wife and your bag, and passes

over them, however when he gets to your son’s bag, he begins to get a bit more active.

You look over at your son and he’s looking a little nervous. You know he’s smoked a

little marijuana in his time, but generally, he’s a good kid, and you certainly didn’t think

he’d actually be stupid enough to bring it back on the plane with him. At first you feel
angry that he would do such a thing and start planning your responsibility lecture, but

then you realize that you are in Bali, and they have a zero tolerance policy on drugs,

meaning your son could be jailed for life, or worse, executed, if he does have some illicit

materials in his bag.

You look at your wife and realize she has come to the same conclusion and has gone

pale with fear.

The armed officer accompanying the dog is beginning to look more stern with every sniff

the dog takes and looks directly at you and asks you to open to the bag.

You do, and as the officer begins to take things out of the bag, you see to your horror

that there is a small quantity of marijuana stashed in with your son’s belongings.

The officer looks at you and asks “Whose bag is this?”

You realize you have to answer, but the answer won’t be easy. You see your wife in the

corner of your eye, and she is about to step forward and claim it as her own.

What should you do?

The Mad Bomber MARINO

A madman who has threatened to explode several bombs in crowded areas has been

apprehended. Unfortunately, he has already planted the bombs and they are scheduled

to go off in a short time. It is possible that hundreds of people may die. The authorities

cannot make him divulge the location of the bombs by conventional methods. He

refuses to say anything and requests a lawyer to protect his fifth amendment right
against self-incrimination. In exasperation, some high level official suggests torture. This

would be illegal, but the official is sure that it will make him tell the truth in time for you to

find and defuse the bombs.

What should you do?

What if you know that the bomber can withstand torture himself, but would talk if you

were to torture his innocent wife instead?

The Sinking Lifeboat OSCAR EDUARDO

You are going on a cruise. 2 days into the cruise your ship experiences technical

difficulties and the captain says it needs to make an unscheduled stop. A couple of

hours later the captain makes another announcement that the ship’s hull has been

breached and that you will all need to start heading to life rafts and abandon ship. The

ship’s life rafts are lowered as people begin to pile in and you get on board one of the

life rafts.

As it is lowered however, it hits the side of the ship, putting a hole in the side of the raft,

and when it hits the water it begins to sink. There are 10 people in the boat and to

prevent it sinking, you quickly work out that by having 9 people working for 10 minutes

while 1 person rests you can bail the water out with their hands, quickly enough to keep

the water at bay and preventing it from sinking, but you have to continually keep it up to

ensure that the boat doesn’t sink. By being able to rest one person you are greatly able
to increase the length of time you can keep the boat afloat, however if the rescue team

doesn’t turn up you calculate that within 5 hours the boat will sink and you will all die.

While taking your break, you glance over to another boat and notice that a friend of

yours whom you met on the boat is there and has noticed your predicament. He is

signaling for you to come over and join them on their boat so you don’t have to continue

bailing water out. There is only just enough room for one more person. You also notice

that their boat is moving away rapidly with the current, but your boat can’t keep up
because the hole is affecting its buoyancy.

You estimate that if you jump ship, you will force all 9 remaining crew members to bail

water continuously, which will reduce the total time they can stay afloat to just 2 hours,

but will ensure that you will be able to live long enough to be rescued.

If you stay aboard, you will not have another chance to jump ship, and there’s no

guarantee that the rescue will arrive in 5 hours, meaning you will all drown, however by

staying you give everyone a better chance of survival.

As you watch the boat with your friend drift away, you realize you have about 30

seconds to make a decision.

Do you stay on your current boat and help keep it afloat as long as possible and hope

that the rescue will arrive in 5 hours, or do you go to your friend’s boat, ensuring your

rescue, but reducing the chances of the others on the boat being rescued?

The Over-Crowded Lifeboat VICTOR DANIEL

In 1842, a ship struck an iceberg and more than 30 survivors were crowded into a

lifeboat intended to hold 7. As a storm threatened, it became obvious that the lifeboat
would have to be lightened if anyone were to survive. The captain reasoned that the

right thing to do in this situation was to force some individuals to go over the side and

drown. Such an action, he reasoned, was not unjust to those thrown overboard, for they

would have drowned anyway. If he did nothing, however, he would be responsible for

the deaths of those whom he could have saved. Some people opposed the captain’s

decision. They claimed that if nothing were done and everyone died as a result, no one

would be responsible for these deaths. On the other hand, if the captain attempted to

save some, he could do so only by killing others and their deaths would be his

responsibility; this would be worse than doing nothing and letting all die. The captain

rejected this reasoning. Since the only possibility for rescue required great efforts of

rowing, the captain decided that the weakest would have to be sacrificed. In this

situation it would be absurd, he thought, to decide by drawing lots who should be thrown

overboard. As it turned out, after days of hard rowing, the survivors were rescued and

the captain was tried for his action.

If you had been on the jury, how would you have decided?

The Tortured Child YELIZA

Imagine that a powerful alien were to visit earth, with the ability to eradicate war, famine

and suffering. The alien says that he will do this, and turn the world into a utopia where

humans will be happy and peaceful forever more, but only if a price is paid. He

demands a small child be given to him so that he can perform hideous scientific

experiments on it, causing the child unimaginable pain.

Should you hand over the child? What if the alien demands that you must inflict the

torture on the child yourself?

The Poisoned Coffee

Tom, hating his wife and wanting her dead, puts poison in her coffee, thereby killing her.

Jane also hates her husband, and would like him dead. One day her husband

accidentally puts poison in his own coffee, thinking it is cream. Jane realises this, and

has the antidote that could save him, but does not hand it over and her husband dies.Is
Jane’s failure to act as bad as Tom’s action?

The Hijacked Plane YESENIA

You are on a plane containing 150 people, currently flying over barren desert. Hijackers

take over, killing the pilot and co-pilot, and sealing themselves in the cockpit. There is

no way for you to open the door, but you could damage the ventilation system causing

poisonous fumes to fill the cockpit. If you do this the hijackers will die, but with no-one

able to enter the cockpit and fly the plane, it will crash in the desert killing everyone on

board. If you do nothing, the hijackers might land the plane safely, or they might crash it

into a civilian target killing even more people.What should you do?

The Sick Patients JULIAN ANDRES

You are a skilled doctor, with five patients who all need different organ transplants.

There are currently no organs available to give them, and if they don’t get their

transplants soon they will all die. You have a sixth patient, who is dying of an incurable

disease. At the moment you are giving him medicine to ease his pain and prolong his

life. He is a compatible organ donor for your five other patients, but the medicine he is

taking will keep him alive just a day longer than they have left. If you were to stop giving
him medicine he would die before them, in a very painful way, but you would then be

able to use his organs to save the other five.

What should you do?

What if the sixth patient’s disease was curable, and the medicine you are giving him will

allow him to make a complete recovery?

The Robin Hood Robber BERNARDO/ JOHANNA LUNA

You witness a man rob a bank, but instead of keeping the money for himself, he

donates it to a local orphanage. You know this orphanage has been struggling for

funding, and this money will allow the children to receive proper food, clothing and

medical care. If you report the crime, the money will be taken away from the orphanage

and given back to the bank.

What should you do?

The Plagiarised Report ORLANDO JULIAN

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 realise
that she did not write it herself – she has copied a report found online and tried to pass

it off as her own work.

If 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?

The Expensive Treatment ALEJANDRO LOPEZ

Your partner is dying from a rare disease. Luckily a cure has recently been invented, by

one druggist who lives fairly close to you. This druggist is selling the cure for ten times

the amount it cost him to make it. You try to raise the money, but even borrowing from

friends and taking a loan from the bank, you can only raise half the amount. You go to

the druggist and offer to pay him half now and half later, but he refuses, saying that he

invented the cure and is determined to make money off it. You beg him to sell it cheaper

as your partner will die before you can raise the full amount, but he still refuses.

You believe you could break into his store one night after he has gone home and steal

the cure. This would definitely save your partner, although you might be arrested for the

crime.

What should you do?

What if you could only steal the cure by killing the druggist