24 Moral Dilemmas I use in Philosophy of Education class as "brain starters" at beginning of class.

2. You are at your best friend’s wedding just an hour
before the ceremony is to start. Earlier that day, you
came across definitive proof that your best friend’s
spouse-to-be is having an affair with the best
man/maid of honor, and you catch them sneaking
out of a room together looking disheveled. If you tell
your friend about the affair, their day will be ruined,
but you don’t want them to marry a cheater. What
do you do?
A. Tell your best friend; sure the day will be ruined,
but better a day ruined than an entire life.
B. Say nothing; your job is to be supportive and
participate in your friend’s happiness.
Your Best Friend's Wedding

3. You are an eyewitness to a crime: A man has
robbed a bank, but instead of keeping the
money for himself, he donates it to a poor
orphanage that can now afford to feed, clothe,
and care for its children. You know who
committed the crime. If you go to the
authorities with the information, there’s a good
chance the money will be returned to the bank,
leaving a lot of kids in need. What do you do?
A. Turn the robber in to the authorities; right
is right.
B. Say nothing since the money went to what
you deem a good cause.
Robbin’ Hood

4. You’ve been on a cruise for two days when there’s an accident that forces everyone on board
to abandon ship. During the evacuation, one of the boats is damaged, leaving it with a hole
that fills it with water. You figure that with 10 people in the boat, you can keep the boat
afloat by having nine people scoop the filling water out by hand for 10 minutes while the
10th person rests. After that person’s 10-minute rest, he or she will get back to work while
another person rests, and so on. This should keep the boat from sinking long enough for a
rescue team to find you as long as it happens within five hours. You’re taking your first brake
when you notice your best friend in a sound lifeboat with only nine people in it and he
beckons you to swim over and join them so you won’t have to keep bailing out water. If you
leave the people in the sinking boat, they will only be able to stay afloat for two hours
instead of five, decreasing their chance of being rescued, but securing yours. What do you
do?
A. Stay in your boat and hope that you are all rescued in five hours time, before the boat
sinks and you all drown.
B. Jump ship and join your friend in his boat and hope that the others are rescued within
two hours.
A Sinking Sensation

5. You’re involved in a two-car crash on your way to work one morning in which you
accidentally hit and kill a pedestrian. As you get out of the car, you are intercepted by a
tearful woman who seems to think that she hit and killed the pedestrian. You’re not sure
why she thinks she hit the person, but she is convinced. There’s only you, the woman, and
the person you hit on the road; there are no witnesses. You know that whoever is deemed
responsible will probably be sent to jail. What do you do?
A. (Confess your responsibility; you wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of an
innocent person being in jail for a crime you committed.
B. Let the woman take the blame; the thought of being locked away from your life and
family is too much to bear.
The Accidental Samaritan

6. Your family is vacationing alone on a private stretch of beach with no lifeguard. Your daughter
and your niece, both 7, are best friends and eager to get into the water. You caution them to
wait until the water calms some, but they defy you and sneak in anyway. You soon hear
screams of distress and find them both caught in a strong current. You are the only swimmer
strong enough to save them, but you can only save one at a time. Your niece is a very poor
swimmer and likely won’t make it much longer. Your daughter is a stronger swimmer, but only
has a 50% chance of holding on long enough for you to come back for her. Who do you save
first?
A. Save your daughter first; you know that your niece will probably die, but you can’t bear
to lose your child.
B. Save your niece first and hope that your daughter can hold on long enough for you to
come back for her.
A Day at the Beach

7. You are an EMT on the scene of a car crash that involves your spouse and the lover you
didn’t know s/he had. They are both gravely injured, your spouse’s injuries the worst of
them. You can tell it’s unlikely s/he will pull through. Meanwhile, his/her lover has a neck
wound that will prove fatal if pressure isn’t applied soon. Whom do you choose to work
on?
A. Work on your spouse; even though s/he cheated and probably won’t pull through,
your loyalty lies with them.
B. Work on his/her lover; they can definitely be saved, and even though you may hate
them, saving them is your job.
The Spouse
and the Lover

8. You and your son are prisoners at a concentration camp. You son tried to escape but was
recaptured and sentenced to hang at the gallows. To send a message to all others who may
try to escape, the guard orders you to pull the chair out from under your son; if you refuse,
the guard will kill your son and another innocent person in the camp. What do you do?
A. Tearfully pull the chair out from under your son.
B. Refuse to pull the chair out from under your son, ensuring both his death and the
death of another inmate.
A
Difficult
Decision

9. You are a doctor at a top hospital. You have six gravely ill patients, five of whom are in
urgent need of organ transplants. You can’t help them, though, because there are no
available organs that can be used to save their lives. The sixth patient, however, will die
without a particular medicine. If s/he dies, you will be able to save the other five patients
by using the organs of patient 6, who is an organ donor. What do you do?
A. Keep patient 6 comfortable, but do not give him the medical care that could save his
life in order to save the other five patients.
B. Save patient 6 and let the other five die; it’s unfortunate, but that’s not your call to
make.
A Doctor’s Dilemma

10. 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. She’s
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?

11. 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?

12. 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?

13. 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?

14. 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?

15. The Baby or the Townspeople
Enemy soldiers have taken over Jane’s 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. Jane’s baby
begins to cry loudly in the other room.
His crying will summon the attention of the soldiers who will spare Jane’s baby’s
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?

16. 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?

17. 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 hospital’s
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 contaminating 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?

18. 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?

19. The Bali Drug 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 son’s bag, he begins to get a bit more active.
You look over at your son and he’s looking a little nervous. You know he’s smoked a little marijuana in his time, but
generally, he’s a good kid, and you certainly didn’t think he’d 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 looking 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 son’s belongings.
The officer looks at you and asks “Whose bag is this?”
You realize you have to answer, but the answer won’t 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?

20. 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?

21. 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 realizes this, and has the antidote that could
save him, but does not hand it over and her husband dies.
Is Jane’s failure to act as bad as Tom’s action?

22. 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?

23. The Plagiarized 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 realize
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 plagiarization 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?

24. 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.
What should you do?
What if you could only steal the cure by killing the druggist?