Moral Dilemmas NAME: _______________
Read each dilemma and explain what you think the outcome should be.
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 it’s 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 isn’t actually spam. You find that it turns out to be an email to your friend’s 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 can’t 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 don’t 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? Justify your response.
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 he’s 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?
Explain.
The Trolley Dilemma
Scenario #1
Molly is standing near railroad tracks when she spots an out of control trolley speeding down a track. She’s safe but up ahead
she notices 5 workers. The trolley is heading straight for them. The workers are too far away to warn, but luckily Molly can
divert the trolley by pulling a nearby lever. The only problem is there is another person working on that second set of tracks.
If she pulls the lever she will be able to divert the trolley to another set up tracks. Thus, she will save 5 people by sacrificing
the 1 person on the second track. If she does nothing 5 people will die.
What should Molly do? Justify your reasoning.
Scenario #2
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? Explain.
The Heinz Dilemma
A woman was near death from a very unusual kind of cancer. The doctors thought that one drug, a form of radium discovered
by a pharmacist that lived in the same town might save her life. The pharmacist paid $400 for the radium and charged $4000
for a small dose of the drug. Mr. Heinz, the sick woman’s husband, went to everyone he knew to borrow money, and tried
every legal means to raise the money, but he could only raise $2000, half the selling price.
Mr. Heinz pleaded with the pharmacist, explaining to him that his wife was dying. He presented several options to the
pharmacist: sell the drug at a cheaper price, let Heinz pay for the drug in installments, or let Heinz pay at a later date. The
pharmacist said, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” Heinz is now considering breaking into the
drug store and stealing the drug for his wife.
1) Should Heinz steal the drug for his wife? Why or why no?
2) Should Heinz steal the drug if the dying person is not a particularly close friend? Why?
And the story continues...
Mr. Heinz decided to break into the store, steal the drug and give it to his wife. Officer Brown, a police officer who
knows Heinz, remembered seeing Heinz in the vicinity of the drug store the night of the break-in. Brown wonders
whether he should report that Heinz was the robber.
3) Should Heinz’ friend, Officer Brown, report Heinz to the police for stealing the drug? Why or why not?
And the story ends...
Officer Brown reports Heinz who is arrested and brought to court. A jury finds Heinz guilty of committing the crime. It is
up to the judge to determine the punishment.
4) Should the judge give Heinz a jail sentence or give him probation for stealing the drug? Why or why
not?
Choose one of the dilemmas from above and offer a moral decision that would be characteristic of each of the
3 levels of Kohlberg’s Moral ladder. (Pre Conventional, Conventional, and Post Conventional) Use a different
color font when responding to the questions.
Name of Dilemma____________________________________________________________
Pre-Conventional Stage:
Conventional Stage:
Post-Conventional Stage:
Describe at least 2 criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory.
Are We Born Good? - Watch this video clip and answer the following questions.
1. Does choosing the puppet with nice behavior over the puppet with mean behavior sufficiently prove that we
are born with a sense of right and wrong? Justify your answer.
2. Describe the experiment that suggested babies are born with an innate sense of justice. Do you agree with
the findings presented in this study? Is part of our morality a “gut-reaction” to a situation? Explain.
3. How does B.F. Skinner suggest babies learn? Was he wrong? Explain.
4. Why do you think so many babies preferred the puppet that liked the same snack as they did? Does this
experiment show that humans are born with biases and innately prefer people who are similar to us? Explain.
5. How does the last experiment with the chips relate to Kohlberg’s Morality theory? Describe what might be
governing the children’s decision. Which stage of moral reasoning do these children appear to be operating
from? (Refer to your textbook for an explanation of Kohlberg’s theory)
