25 Moral Dilemmas

Posted on May 9, 2013 by pixi

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 humans life if you have the ability to do so, how do you decide what to do if
you can only save a humans 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


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. Shes 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

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

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

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

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 fathers
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 fathers room and smother his father with a pillow.

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

The Submarine Crew

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

Enemy soldiers have taken over Janes 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.
Janes baby begins to cry loudly in the other room.

His crying will summon the attention of the soldiers who will spare Janes babys 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

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 hes 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

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 hospitals 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 Concentration Camp

You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son who tried to
escape and wants you to pull the chair from underneath him. He says that if you dont he will not only
kill your son but some other innocent inmate as well. You dont have any doubt that he means what he
says.

What should you do?



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 shes 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 theres a very high chance shell die. You look at the seat next to her and
see her lover. Hes 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

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
its 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 isnt actually spam. You find that it
turns out to be an email to your friends 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 cant 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 dont 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

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

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 dont 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 hadnt 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 isnt 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, theres probably a 50% chance that your daughter will be able to stay afloat
long enough for you return, but you simply dont know how long she will hold on for.

Who should you save first?

The Bali Drugs Charge

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 sons bag, he begins
to get a bit more active.

You look over at your son and hes looking a little nervous. You know hes smoked a little marijuana in
his time, but generally, hes a good kid, and you certainly didnt think hed 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 sons belongings.

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

You realize you have to answer, but the answer wont 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

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

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 ships hull has been breached and that you will all need to start heading to life
rafts and abandon ship. The ships 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 doesnt 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
doesnt 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 dont 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
cant 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 theres 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 friends boat, ensuring your rescue, but reducing the chances
of the others on the boat being rescued?

The Over-Crowded Lifeboat

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 captains 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

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 Janes failure to act as bad as Toms action?

The Hijacked Plane

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

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 dont 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 patients disease was curable, and the medicine you are giving him will allow him to
make a complete recovery?

The Robin Hood Robber

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

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

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.