THE THREE LEVELS OF

MORAL DILEMMAS
 LEARNING OUTCOME

Illustrate the three levels of moral dilemma

Able to give examples of the different
levels of moral dilemma
Able to distinguish the differences of the
three levels of moral dilemmas.
Able to suggest resolution to moral
dilemmas.
 ACTIVITY
Read the following dilemmas:
Case #1
The mission of catholic school A is to serve the
poor by giving quality education. It is torn
between the obligation to charge low tuition to
help the poor and to pay better salaries to keep
quality teachers.
Case #2
Heinz’s wife was dying from a particular type of cancer. Doctors
said a new drug might save her. The drug has been discovered by the
local chemist, and the Heinz tried desperately to buy some, but the
chemist was charging ten times the money it cost to make the drug,
and this was much more than the Heinz could afford.
Heinz could only raise half of the money, even after the help from
family and friends. He explained to the chemist that his wife was
dying and asked if he could have the drug cheaper or pay the rest of
the money later.
The chemist refused, saying he had discovered the drug and was
going to make money from it. The husband was desperate to save his
wife, so later that night he broke into the chemist’s laboratory and
stole the drug.
Case #3
A principal ought to welcome and encourage
parents and community participation in school affairs.
Based on her experience, parents and community are
passive and so the principal always ends up deciding
and doing things just the same. She is obliged to
observe parents’ and community participation which
do not give any input at all at the same time she
obliged to accomplish things on time.
 ANALYSIS
Answer the following questions:
1. Among the 3 dilemmas, which is an
example of an individual dilemma?
Organizational dilemma? Structural
dilemma?
2. How do the 3 dilemmas differ?
 ABSTRACTION
A. Individual Dilemmas
 This refers to personal dilemmas. It is an
individual’s damn-if-you-do-damn-if you-
don’t.
 A person is torn between two obligations
(ex. Heinz dilemma, to save the wife or
obey the law)
B. Organizational Dilemmas
 An organizational dilemma is a puzzle posed
by the dual necessities of a social
organization and members’ self interest.
 It may exist between personal interests and
organizational welfare or between group
interests and organizational well-being.
 Organizational dilemma occur in business,
medical and public sector.
Example: The story of Mr. Brown, a 74-year old man who is seriously ill of
Metastatic Lung Cancer. Mr. Brown completed a full course of radiation therapy
as well as chemotherapy for treatment of his cancer and he is now hospitalized
with severe shortness of breath and pneumonia. His physician has managed the
symptoms associated with lung disease but believes that there are no other
options available to aggressively treat the underlying cancer… Both Mr. Brown
and his wife clearly state that they “want everything done.”…
 The dilemma here lies in the conflicting concerns:
a) The financial problems of Mr. Brown and his wife
b) The hospital concern of focusing its attention on this hopeless
patient when there are other cases which have still possible
remedies.
c) The other hospital patient’s concern particularly the their need
of medicine used by Mr. Brown
d) The other concern of medical staff et. al.
 Organizational dilemmas arise due to
different opposing concerns between various
groupings in an organization.
STRUCTURAL DILEMMAS
 The case of the principal whether to be
participatory and non-participatory in school
affairs but due to her not so favorable
experience of attempting to be participatory
ended up to one-woman rule is an example of
structural dilemma.
Any attempt to introduce reform in society or
government creates structural dilemma
 Example: promoting or introducing universal
health care, which is tantamount to socialized
health care give rise to structural dilemma.
 Structural dilemma is a conflict of
perspective of sectors, groupings and
institutions that may be affected by the
decision.
Below are more examples of structural
dilemma:
1. Differentiation versus Integration in
Structural Dilemma
2. Gap versus overlap
3. Lack of clarity versus lack of creativity
4. Flexibility versus strict adherence to Rules
1. Differentiation versus Integration in
Structural Dilemma
- Different division have their own different
culture and so coordination between divisions
or bringing them together becomes more
difficult.
*Decentralization (institutions become more
differentiated and so it becomes more difficult to
integrate them as a unified structure
2. Gap vs. overlap
There may be gaps and overlaps in roles
and responsibilities. If key responsibilities
are not clearly assigned there may be gaps
or overlaps an important tasks
If there are Gaps, organization end up with no one doing responsibility.
If there are overlaps, things become unclear and may lead to more confusion and
even conflict and worse wasted effort and perhaps even resources because of
unintended overlap.
3. Lack of clarity vs. lack of creativity – when
responsibilities are over-defined, people
conform to prescribed roles and protocols in
“bureaucratic” ways. They rigidly allow job
descriptions regardless of how much the
service of product suffers and so, end up
uncreative.
Ex: McDonald's customers are not seeking novelty and
surprise in their burgers and fries.
4. Flexibility vs. strict adherence to rules
- You accommodate by bending rules to help
someone or;
- You stick strictly to rules no matter what and so
unable to help someone who is thrown into a
helpless situation.
Ex. Your jobs are defined so clearly that you will stick to them even
if circumstances are such that by sticking to your job description
the service or product that your organization provides suffers.
 RESOLVING MORAL DILEMMAS
1.Think of available alternative options
revealing that dilemma does not really
exist.
2. “Choosing the greater good and lesser
evil or…”
 RESOLVING MORAL DILEMMAS
3. Kant’s principles “ought implies I can”
rule. – If I ought to do something then I
can do it. By contraposition, If I cannot
do something then I cannot be obliged to
do it. (in other words, only one is obliged
to do something if and only he can do it.)
 RESOLVING MORAL DILEMMAS
“do what you can where you are”(Joseph
Fletcher)
or quoting St. Augustine’s :
“Dilege et quod vis fac” (Love and do what
you will).
The extent of one’s obligation and responsibility is the extent of one’s
ability and measure of the “extent” is one’s capacity for love.
 Reflection
What structural dilemma have you
experienced? How did you deal with
it? Are you happy with how you
dealt with it?