HU222 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

“THE LIFEBOAT DILEMMA”

Assignment No: 01

TEAM MEMBERS:

Maleeha Khalid 216185

Arooba Rehman 219374

Muhammad Husnain Ali 208154

Fatima Tahir 220109

Sadia Asif 228918

Problem Statement:
The ship is sinking, and the seas are rough. All but one lifeboat has been destroyed. The lifeboat
holds a maximum of six people. There are ten people that want to board the lifeboat. The four
individuals who do not board the boat will certainly die.

a. Woman who is six weeks pregnant

b. Lifeguard

c. Two young adults who recently married.

d. Senior citizen who has fifteen grandchildren

e. Prominent professor at University

f. Thirteen-year-old twins

g. Veteran surgeon

h. Captain of the ship

Required:

Who should board the boat? And why? If you are the captain, who should you allow to board the
boat? And why?

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 (Maleeha Khalid)

★ A woman who is six weeks pregnant

In the present scenario, being a captain, I will allow her to board the ship. The reasons
and justification of my decision are as follows:

❏ If she boards the ship, there are handsome chances that she along with the
baby will survive and we are saving two people for the price of one. Whatever
the situation is, it is always a priority to save as many people as possible.
There is greater utility in the decision of letting her live, despite leaving her
behind. The baby symbolizes hope and letting him die would be very cruel.
Though the lady will not be able to help other members on the boat in case of
an emergency, still leaving her behind is not a good decision.
❏ Ethics also supports the decision of saving the pregnant lady as it always
supports the idea of saving as many people as you can in a life-threatening
situation.

★ Prominent Professor at university:

I will allow him to board the ship. The reasons and justification of this decision are as
follows:

❏ The professor if saved will continue to provide education to a big part of the
community and loads of students will benefit from that. He has an impact on a
large part of society and is useful for the coming generations. The knowledge
he imparts is of much utility for university students and aid in making a
career. Hence, keeping the “utilitarian” point of view in mind, saving him is
the right decision.
❏ Ethics also supports this decision as a person who has contributed so much to
society and can still be of great utility for people, must be saved.

(Arooba Rehman)

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 ★ Captain:

Consider the following:

❏ The modern U.S. code states that the captain is legally responsible for helping
everyone on the ship to safety first and then himself. However, different countries
have different laws and there is no international maritime law that requires a
captain to always stay.
❏ The captain can be useful in terms of navigation and will have life-saving skills
that can help other people on the boat later.

Decision:

The captain will NOT be given a spot on the ship. Even though the captain can be useful
on the lifeboat, he may be more useful on the sinking boat as the lifeboat contains no
options for sending a help signal to nearby boats. He can send emergency signals before
the ship drowns and it is an unspoken rule that it is part of the captain's job to stay on
board the ship and direct evacuation in case of emergency. So, according to utilitarianism
and morality, it is better if the captain stays behind.

★ A senior citizen who has fifteen grandchildren:

Consider the following:

❏ A person who is 65 and above is considered a senior citizen.

❏ It is a code of conduct that the most vulnerable should be helped to evacuate first
i.e., injured, elderly, etc.
❏ However, in terms of utilitarianism, the senior citizen would not be able to
provide much help in the rough seas and others will have to take care of him.

Decision:

The senior citizen will NOT board the lifeboat as considering utilitarianism he has lived
up to a pretty good age and is much older than the others. He will not be able to provide
help on the boat as well.

(Muhammad Husnain Ali)

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 ★ Two young adults who recently married:

I will not allow couple to board the ship:

❏ In terms of utilization the couple would not be very useful in any emergency that
may happen.
❏ During an emergency that may happen again, they would prefer to save each other
instead of teamwork.
❏ They are just married and if they die, they could at least die with the person they
love, which would be a happier death than the rest of these people.

★ Veteran Surgeon:

I will allow him to board the ship:

❏ If we look at utilitarianism of the surgeon, he may be helpful during the journey

and he can help others to survive.
❏ If someone gets ill during the journey the surgeon can help that person, as he has
knowledge related to diseases etc.
❏ He had served a good service before and it would almost be unethical to let him
die because he had sacrificed his life for others in the past.

(Sadia Asif)

★ Thirteen years old twins:

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 I will allow thirteen-year-old twins to board the ship due to the following reasons:

❏ In terms of utilization, twins are young and have more potential to grow and serve
others and they can help to save other lives in future as they are the future of any
generation.
❏ In terms of ethics and our moral values, children are saved first. Also, Article 6 of
UNCRC also tells us to do as much as we can for saving the lives of children.

★ Lifeguard:

Due to following reasons, I will allow lifeguard to board the ship:

❏ In terms of utilitarianism, lifeguards have more utility over captains as He is

equipped and trained with the skills to handle emergency situations.
❏ Lifeguards can help all other people to reach safely to their destinations by
helping them to rescue or overcome any emergency in future.
❏ Utility of all the safety training, experience of rescue operations and necessary
lifeguard equipment are associated with lifeguard so if we do not allow him to
board, it will be a huge loss. So, if he is saved, he still can save lot of other people

(Fatima Tahir)

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 People Allowed to board

Allowed
Woman who is six weeks pregnant

Allowed
Lifeguard

Not allowed
Two young adults who recently married

Not Allowed
Senior citizen who has fifteen grandchildren

Allowed
Prominent professor at University

Allowed
Thirteen-year-old twins

Allowed
Veteran surgeon

Not Allowed
Captain of the ship

Conclusion:

Conclusively, we evaluated each person morally, ethically and keeping utilitarianism in

mind. We saved the people with more weightages. These were tough decisions but sometimes
you must make difficult choices in life for the betterment of everyone.

THE END