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ADDENDUM II – 1 FOR MODULE II

STANDARDS AND DILEMMAS

*Richard Gundran Patacsil
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LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students are expected to demonstrate the following at the end of this lesson:

1. Detect a moral dilemma;

2. Identify the levels of moral dilemmas;
3. Distinguish between moral and non-moral standards.
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Standards

Some experts of Ethics equate moral standards with moral values and moral principles.
Developing a moral direction in children is a responsibility that should be shared by the family,
educational institutions, and the community at large. It is important to remember that the
moral development of young people depends on the ethical capacities of the adults who
interact with them on a daily basis – especially parents, but also teachers, members of their
extended family and other adults in the community. Every young person needs both a role
model to inspire them and an environment that holds up good values and celebrates them.

Non-moral standards refer to rules that are unrelated to moral or ethical

considerations. Either these standards are not necessarily linked to morality or by nature lack
ethical sense. Examples of non-moral standards include rules of ETIQUETTE, FASHION
STANDARDS, RULES IN GAMES, or HOUSE RULES.

ETIQUETTE refers to the norms of correct conduct in polite society or, more generally,
to any special code of social behaviour or courtesy. The rules of etiquette are prescriptions for
socially acceptable behaviour. If you violate them, you are likely to be considered ill-
mannered, impolite, or even uncivilized, BUT NOT NECESSARILY IMMORAL. Examples of
etiquette are avoidance of being nude in public, taboo of doing sex in public, offering a seat to
a lady or elderly in a bus or jeepney, or not smacking one’s lips or mouth while eating.

STATUTES are laws enacted by the national legislature or Congress (House of

Representatives and the Senate), while laws passed by local government bodies (LGUs) -
province, city, municipality, or barangay – are known as ORDINANCES.

People sometimes confuse legality and morality, but THEY ARE DIFFERENT THINGS. On
one hand, breaking the law is not always or necessarily immoral. On the other hand, the
legality of an action does not guarantee that it is morally right.

Somewhere between ETIQUETTE and the LAW lie professional code of ethics. These
are the rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of members of a given profession.
Examples are the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for government employees of the
Philippines, and Legal Ethics for lawyers and judges.
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Moral Dilemmas

A MORAL DILEMMA is a situation where:

1) You are presented with two or more actions, all of which you have the ability to perform.
2) There are moral reasons for you to choose each of the actions.
3) You cannot perform all of the actions when there are three or more choices, to perform.

Since there are moral reasons for you to choose each action, and you cannot choose
them all, it follows that NO MATTER WHAT CHOICE YOU MAKE, YOU WILL BE FAILING TO
FOLLOW YOUR MORALS. In other words, SOMEONE OR SOMETHING WILL SUFFER NO MATTER
WHAT CHOICE YOU MAKE. This is the essence of a MORAL DILEMMA.

A case in point: Your friend will suffer if you tell the truth, and you will surely lose
your friendship. But if you choose not to tell the truth, you will be a damned liar and possibly
a violator of the law, and your friend will get arrested for a crime he/she did not commit.

Three Levels of Moral Dilemma

1) Individual – This is experienced by individuals who have a hard time to choose the
right action from two or more actions.

Example: Imagine yourself to be an inmate in Muntinlupa Bilibid Prison. A jail guard is

about to hang your son (also a prisoner) who tried to escape but was recaptured and wants you
to pull the chair underneath your son to strangle him to death. He says that if you don’t, he
will not only kill your son but some other innocent inmates as well. You don’t have any doubt
that he means what he says. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

2) Organizational – In organizations, there are always dilemmas encountered by the

administrator and the employees. It is really very hard to pin down the necessary morals to
benefit the company.

Example: Assuming that you have a job as a Network Administrator in a megamall in

your place. The mall also employs your best friend’s husband. One day, your best friend’s
husband sends you a text message asking you to release an e-mail from quarantine. This
requires you to open the e-mail, at which point you discover that it is a correspondence
between this guy (friend’s husband) and his secret lover. After releasing the e-mail, you find
yourself in trouble. Something tells you to confide to your best friend about the husband’s
infidelities but divulging the contents of company e-mails is against company policy and you
could lose your job. Once it becomes plain that your best friend found out about his cheating
husband through a company e-mail, all indications will point to you as the one who leaked the
whole thing. DO YOU TELL YOUR FRIEND ABOUT THE ESCAPADE OF HER HUSBAND?

3) Systemic – This type of dilemma occurs in the ordinary conditions of life, a dilemma
within the system which is truly difficult, or even elusive, to resolve.

Example: Your partner is dying from a rare disease. Luckily, a cure has recently been
invented by one pharmacist who lives close by. This pharmacist is selling the cure for ten
times the amount it cost him to produce 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 pharmacist 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.
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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
PHARMACIST, ARE YOU WILLING TO BE A MURDERER??

Dilemmas are dilemmas because they are, well, dilemmas (Ariola, 2018).

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ACTIVITY I - What are the moral dilemmas that college students like you usually encounter?
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ACTIVITY 2 - Differentiate MORAL STANDARD from ETIQUETTE. Give your examples.

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ACTIVITY 3 - Resolve the dilemmas given as examples in The Three Levels of Moral Dilemma
above.
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References:

Ariola, Mariano (2018). Ethics (New General Education Curriculum Compliant). Manila: Unlimited Books Library
Services and Publishing Inc. pp. 29 - 31

Leaño, Roman Jr. and Gubia-on, Arthur (2018). Ethics for College Students (CHED Curriculum-Compliant).
Manila: Mindshapers Co. Inc. pp. 22 - 25

Palean, Erland et. al. (2019). Ethics: Exploring Moral Philosophy. Mandaluyong City: Books Atbp. Publishing
Corp. pp. 9 - 11