Oral Expression Activity

Instructions: Work in small groups discussing each moral dilemma from the list. Then,
present your ideas to the class. You will have 15- 20 min.

*Good opportunity to practice second conditional, modal verbs for speculation (may, could, must, can’t), cohesive
devices (moreover, although, however), and different ways of agreeing and disagreeing.

Moral Dilemmas:

1. Your spouse is suffering from an incurable disease that causes them terrible pain and
agony. One day they decide they can’t take it anymore and want to die. Since they are
unable to commit suicide themselves, they ask you for your help. It is not only morally
objectionable, but also illegal in your country. What will you do?

2. You are driving to work one day when suddenly you get involved in a two- car crash. A
pedestrian is killed. While you are getting out of your car, the other driver comes up to you in
tears, convinced they had killed the innocent passer-by. You know for a fact it was you who
did it. There are no witnesses to the accident. You know that the culprit will be sent to prison
for their crime. Will you let the other driver take the blame?

3. After the ship you are traveling with had an accident, you find yourself in a 10-person
lifeboat together with 30 other people (men and women of different ages, and some
children). The lifeboat is too heavy to paddle and it is filling with water. Unless you throw
some people overboard, the boat will sink killing everybody in it. What is the most morally
acceptable choice?

4. You and your best friend snuck out to a party, without your parent’s permission. You are
having a lot of fun and engage in some illegal drinking. It’s been 2 hours since you arrive,
but your friend is drunk out of her mind. You start to panic and try to sober her up, you make
strong coffee, take her to the yard for some air, but nothing seems to be working. Everyone
believes she has alcohol poisoning, you know that if you call parents you both will be
banned from partying until you leave home. What would you do?

5. You have flu-like symptoms, so you call the Hospital but nobody answers. You do not
have a car, therefore you take an Uber to go to the hospital. Once there, you take the RT-
PCR test as you are suspect of COVID-19 and it results positive. As you were irresponsible
for taking a cab and infected the driver, he accuses you of jeopardising his life. Should you
be sentenced for putting his life at risk?

6. 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?