Lesson 2

MORAL DILEMMAS

NAME: NIEL JOHN M. BANDADA

: BSSW 2A

ACTIVITY
Read The Pregnant Lady and the Dynamite, then answer the question 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 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?

ANALYSIS

1. What would you do if you were one of the men? Explain why you decided to
act that way?

If I were one of the men and I needed to decide what I choose in this situation is to
be drowned because if I choose to blow a dynamite to a pregnant lady it will
traumatized me forever worst than being dead.

2. The situation or the experience you went through is a moral dilemma. What
then is a moral dilemma?

Moral dilema is a situaion which you need to decide between to two possible
option. It also a conflict situation in which the choice one makes causes a moral
harm, which cannot be restlessly repaired.his means that moral dilemmas are
situation 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 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 deadlock.

3. Is finding yourself in a moral dilemma, a moral experience? Why or why

not?

Yes, it is because in our life thier is a timebwe are tested as individuals to make the
right choice. How we view ourselves as individuals and how others view us are
directly correlated to our moral decision-making. But morals are somewhat
misleading. What might be a wrong decision for one person might be a solution to
another. I believe that our moral decision-making comes from our upbringing of
what is right or wrong.

Name: Niel John M. Bandada

APPLICATION

1. Are these 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 thousands of employees are unable to do their
work. Anne contacts the local authorities to solve the problem. A bureaucrats 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 company’ PCs back to the town hall. There is a desperate shortage of
PCs there, and the bureaucrat and his colleagues are therefore unable to do and provide
adequate service to the local community. Thus, he suggests a trade-off: PCs for electricity. In
this manner, Anne and her company can take a significant contribution to the society in
which they operate. Time is of the essence, and Anne has a little time to dwell on the
alternatives. There 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 high cost, particularly compared to cost of losing ten PCs 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. Ann
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 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 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 be able to arrest him,
since his medical information is protected.
It occurs to Ken that he could contaminate hid medication by 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 spreading HIV?
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 is 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 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?

Yes, it is all examples ofmoral delima, in every situation they have a posible oftion
that leads them in a state of emergency witch demands thier moral laws. They
faces a suitation which he need to choose in this decision making which conflict
with his moral concern.

Name Niel John M. Bandada

2. Are these moral dilemmas?
a. Taking credit for others’ work in order to get promoted
b. Manufacturing and distributing fake drugs for profit
c. Offering a client a worse product for bigger profit
 d. Utilizing inside knowledge for your own profit

No, this is not a moral dilemma because thier is no deadlock situation given. But it
is an example of 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.

3. Compose your own dilemma

Imagine you are working in store with your brother with his bestfriend
and one other imployee. One time you witness your brother shoplifting
some stuff then when your boss doubt that some of the stuff are missing
your brother frame up the other imployee. His bestfriend also side up
with your brother. Your boss ask you about the situation will you choose
to tell the truth and betray your brother?
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
A. Write T if the statement is True and F if is False.

__F_1. A person or persons in a moral dilemma can easily choose which course of action to
take.
__F__2. In a moral dilemma, one course of action between two options is obviously immoral
while the other choice is moral.
__F__3. A person involved in a moral dilemma can choose both options.
__T__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.
__T__5. In a moral dilemma, a person is torn between two no good options.