Ethical Dilemma?

Question

I am doing a paper for my Ethics class and i need to come up with some sort of Ethical dilemma. For example, You are put in a certain situation where you have to choose between your personal satisfacation and your moral beliefs. PLEASE HELP i cant think of anything interesting, everything is so cliche.

Answer 1

You absolutely love him. There is something between you. He feels the same. You have done nothing about it for years because of your conscience and it is against your moral beliefs. But you cant move on because you have never explored this relationship. Life is ticking away. No one need get hurt?.......

Answer 2

Everyday Moral Dilemmas

Answer 3

Maybe you should not concentrate on a specific ethical dilemma. Perhaps you should try focusing on the subject of ethical dilemmas. For example, we are all faced with ethical dilemmas every minute of every day, such as whether to try to beat a red light, embellishing a story, telling a friend a new dress is pretty, etc. You could then discuss why these simple things are ethical dilemmas and the consequences. This would broaden your subject, thus allowing you to have more information to write a longer paper.

Answer 4

You can't think of anything?! Life is full of conflicts between what is right and what we selfishly want, and it is a little disturbing that you can't think of any examples. Try to think outside standard cultural assumptions more.

How about vegetarianism? Or giving money to famine relief instead of spending it on yourself? This are issues that far too few people in our society are remotely aware of, let alone realize are moral issues which confront them on a daily basis.

I would like to clarify what an ethical "dilemma" is, though. A conflict between personal satisfaction and moral beliefs is not really an ethical dilemma. It is clear what ethics says. The dilemma is whether you can overcome selfishness to do the right thing, but this is not a moral dilemma at all. A moral (or ethical) dilemma is where you are presented with a situation where what is right is not obviously clear. If a person has made clear they do not want their organs taken after they die, but when they die another person who is a perfect match with them needs one of their organs to live. This is an ethical dilemma. Is it right to violate the wishes of the dead to save someone's life? In an ethical dilemma, the right thing to do has to be discovered. In the situations you describe what is right is obvious, and so they are not ethical dilemmas.

Answer 5

The lifeboat dilemma was probably the most popular instance of this subject back in the 60's and 70's. You are afloat in a lifeboat with too many people during a storm and you have a gun and plenty of ammo. You must choose between the following: A ) wait for the storm to drown everyone. B ) kill yourself to avoid the decision. C ) kill everyone before the storm arrives. D ) kill some to save some before the storm arrives. The last option was always pretty much the entire point of the topic. Is it better to die or to live with the consequences of decision? This dilemma is just an elaborate version of Hamlet's "To be or not to be?" philosophical question.

Answer 6

Imagine the anguish of a married couple who desperately want to have a child yet because of infertility cannot. They look to medical science for help and find that many techniques and therapies have been developed to overcome infertility. Does it matter which one they choose, if any?

TODAY infertile couples have options that were not available just decades ago. But along with the choices comes a serious question, What are the ethical and moral implications of assisted reproductive techniques? Before we consider that, though, let us see how various religious groups view such treatments.

*** w04 12/1 pp. 3-4 A Trait Distinctively Human ***

Jodie owns an estate-sales business. He is helping a woman sort and sell her deceased sister’s household items. Poking around an old fireplace, he finds a couple of old tackle boxes. When he looks inside one of them, he cannot believe his eyes. Wrapped in foil are rolls of $100 bills—a total of $82,000 in cash! Jodie is alone in the room. What should he do? Quietly take the box or tell his client that he found the money?

JODIE’S dilemma highlights one of the characteristics that set us apart from brute beasts. The World Book Encyclopedia states: “One of humanity’s special traits is to ask thoughtful questions about what we should or should not do.” A hungry dog finding a piece of meat on a picnic table would hardly ponder whether it should eat the morsel. Jodie, though, has the capacity for weighing the morality of his decision. If he keeps the cash, he is stealing, but it is unlikely that he will be caught. The money does not belong to him; yet, his client has no idea that it exists. Besides, most people in Jodie’s community would think him foolish if he gave the cash to his client.

What would you do in Jodie’s situation? The way you answer that question will depend on the code of ethics that you have chosen to live by.

What Is Meant by Ethics?

“Ethics” has been described as “the study of questions about what is morally right and wrong.” (Collins Cobuild English Dictionary) Author Eric J. Easton says: “‘Ethics’ and ‘morality’ have the same root meaning. The first is Greek (ethikos) and the second Latin (moralis) in origin, and both refer to the authority of custom and tradition.”

For a long time, religion has generally dictated the ethical standards by which people live. God’s Word, the Bible, has been an influential force in many societies. However, a growing number of people worldwide have rejected the various religious standards as impractical and the Bible’s moral code as outdated. What has filled the void? The book Ethics in Business Life notes that “secular reason has . . . vanquished the authority which previously belonged to religion.” Instead of turning to religious sources, many seek the guidance of secular experts in ethical studies. Bioethicist Paul McNeill says: “I think ethicists are the secular priests. . . . People now speak in terms of ethics where they might once have spoken in terms of religion.”

When you face difficult decisions, how do you discern right from wrong? Are your ethical standards determined by God or by you?

Answer 7

Scenario 1, you absolutely agree with the traditional scope of thinking especially the bible. You therefore vehemently support the point of view that being hetrosexual is the only acceptable and viable way/choice of living.

The fact is that you have been dating your boyfriend for 3 years now, love him so much and are now in fact (after a day of sinful passion which you have apologised to God for) pregnant. By the way he is not supposed to be able to have children due to an accident he had as a kid..

your parents have now broken down to tell you that you were born a hermaphrodite and they made the decision then to remove your male organ as a child believing it was the non definitive one.

The reason they are telling you this now is because the hospital that analysed your two organs at that time has contacted them to say they made a mistake then and you were in fact more male than female.

It therefore should have been you female organ that should have been removed because you are in fact a man.

what now do you do in the following ensuing situation.
1. Continue dating your fiance, which would now in fact mean that you are in a homosexual relationship (which would be something contradictory to what you believe)
2. Terminate your baby(which you also have issues with) since you do not believe in having a baby outside wedlock (another traditional belief) and cannot in marry a man since you are a man
3.Pretend all this is a bad dream, your parents/the hospital must be wrong cause there is in fact no way a man can be pregnant, and no God or moral leader haven met you and your fiance would say you should not marry since not only is it that he is the love of your life who makes life worth living but also because both of you are incredibly good people who have gone through a lot and thus deserve some happiness
©2007 O.Areo

Answer 8

How about:

You are the captain of a cruise-liner and there is a problem with the ship's engine which is causing a build-up of pressure that will ultimately cause the engine to explode killing everyone in the engine room, but leaving the rest of the ship completely unharmed.

There are two crewmen trapped in the engine room whom you do not know and have only just joined the crew.

The only person who has the knowledge to delay the explosion and give the two crewmen chance to excape is your best friend who you have known since school and is the beloved Godparent of all six of your children.

Although this would mean certain death...

What do you do?

Answer 9

Perhaps this is a bit cliché too but I would write about euthanasia, because there are so many different angles from which you can approach it. You could think about what it means for the sufferer (relief from pain, chronic illness etc) as well as for the person who has to carry it out (not watching a loved one suffer vs having a death on your conscience) and then legal and moral implications.
Or about the abortion debate which I think is equally interesting, there is so much you could write about it.
Even though these might be "clichéd" you could write something original on either. It's more about HOW you write, not WHAT.

Answer 10

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A real-life example from my own life: how to tell a friend to leave her abusive boyfriend, knowing that it could end the friendship. In the end her safety was important to me, so I said what was on my mind. I told her how worried I was and why. She got so angry she insulted me, threatened me, and said a racial slur about my husband. I ended the friendship right there. But I don't regret it. I did the right thing, I tried to help, and if she's going to act like that she can go do what she wants and deal with the consequences.

Answer 11

I answered the following question on YA the other day:

An ethics ?- A 56y.o. manager with kids in college, discover that the owners of his company r cheating the gov't out of several thousand $'s a year in taxes. He is the ONLY employee in a position to kow this. Should he report the owners to the IRS at the risk of endangering his own livelihood, or should he disregard the discovery to protect his family's livelihood??