NUST

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF
SCIENCE AND TECNOLOGY

HU 223 Professional Ethics

Class: BESE-10A

Assignment 01: Life Boat Dilemma

Instructor: Ehsan-ul-Hassan

21 February 2022

Presented by:

Ghulam Muhammad [287365]

 The “Life Boat” Dilemma

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:
If you are the captain, who should you allow to board the boat? And why?
You are required to present your agreement or disagreement with the statement. Support
your arguments in the light of all previous lectures delivered in the course.

Answer:
The life boat dilemma presents a person with difficult situation to deal with. It requires
quick and logical thinking to back the action that could potentially save the lives of as many as
possible. In the above situation, the maximum a life-boat can hold is 6 persons. And the total
persons to board are 10. Anyone how doesn’t board the ship will die. Given these constraints, I
have come up with the following list of person how will board on the ship and the person who
won’t.

The people whom I will board on the life boat are:

 6 week pregnant women because by boarding her I would actually be saving two
lives, one of the mother and the other of child, at the cost of only one seat.
 13-year-old twins because they are weak and can’t themselves. They have a long
life ahead of them and have the most chances to survive. They can prove to be an
asset for world in near future. Moreover, since they are only 13 years of children,
they would end up taking less space on life boat.

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  Veteran Surgeon because he will be able to attend to the injured and sick people
on board the life boat and maximize the chances of their survival, the very cause
other people have given their life for. Moreover, through his years of experience
with patient dealing with their life, he would be able to handle any sort of panic
on the life boat.
 Prominent Professor because he is a valuable asset of society and good
professors are hard to come by. Moreover, he will able to give hope to the
survivals and nullify any panic or mishap
 Senior Citizen because he is weak and can’t survive if not allowed to get aboard.
He many have many services for the world and should be respected.

The people I will leave on the ship and not board on the life boat are:

 The newly married couple because they are young and strong and have the
highest chances for survive without life boat.
 Lifeguard and Captain because they have the training of these kind of situation
and will have very high chances of survival without life boat.

These decisions were hard to make but were made under the light of two main guiding
point which are as under:
 Make sure that the weakest people having the least chances of survival should be
boarded on the boat.
 The people most beneficial to society should then be allowed to get on board.

The principles have importance in decreasing manner and the 1 one carries the most important.

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