MORAL DILEMMA

Karlo S. Tolentino, LPT, MAEd.

Moral Dilemmas
• Are instances when individuals are
confronted with conflicting answers
to the question, "what is right?“
• Answers to this question come from
various sources:
• One is personal experience or
the things an individual gains
every day from social
interactions.
• Another source—the one
pursued by philosophers-is to
obtain moral judgments by
applying the principles of
morality.
• In psychology, a moral dilemma is
said to arise when distinct
psychological mechanisms for moral
judgment yield conflicting judgments
of individual cases.
• Situations like these can place a
person in a moral conflict, in which
several alternative courses of action
can have positive and negative
outcomes.
• Conflict typically involves opposing
values, beliefs, and norms.
• Thus, conflict is rooted not only in
individual behavior but also in
different values and norms of the
society.
• The English Oxford Dictionary
defines moral dilemma as a
situation in which a difficult
choice has to be made
between two courses of action,
either of which entails
transgressing a moral
principle.
• In matters of right and wrong,
individuals are expected to
have moral principles to guide
them in moral decision-making.
• In philosophy, a moral dilemma
is based on a distinction
between what one foresees (or
could and should have
foreseen) as a result of his or
her voluntary action (free will)
and what, in the strict sense,
he or she intends to do.
• Moral dilemma relates primarily to the principle of
double effect that takes root in the teachings of St.
Thomas Aquinas.
• In his work Summa Theologica, St. Thomas
introduces the principle of double effect in his
discussion on the permissibility of self-defense.
• He himself holds that killing one's assailant is justified,
provided that one does not intend to kill him or her.
• The act of self-defense may have double effect:
• first, the saving of one's own life;
• second, the slaying of the aggressor.
• He also argues that since one's intention is to save
one's own life, the act is not unlawful.
• However, St. Thomas maintains that the permissibility
of self-defense is not unconditional.
• The act of self-defense may be rendered unlawful if a
man in self-defense shows unnecessary violence.
Case Situation:
• You are an eyewitness to a robbery. A man robbed a rich
woman for him to pay for his son’s crucial operation. You know
who committed the crime. If you go to the police to report the
crime, there is the strong possibility that the money will be
returned to the rich woman.
• What will you do?
• Will you report the crime and tell the truth to the police or say
nothing since the money will be used for the operation and the
son will be saved?
• Justify your answer.
 Important Elements in Moral
Decision-Making
• The New Catholic Encyclopedia lists the principal conditions
of the principle of double effect:
1. The act itself must be morally good or at least
indifferent.
2. The agent may not positively will the bad effect but
may permit it. If he or she could attain the good effect
without the bad effect, he or she should do so. The
bad effect is sometimes said to be indirectly voluntary.
3. The good effect must flow from the action at least as
immediately as the bad effect. In other words, the
good effect must be produced directly by the action,
not by the bad effect. Otherwise, the agent would be
using a bad means to a good end, which is never
allowed.
4. The good effect must be sufficiently desirable to
compensate for the allowing of the bad effect.
• Paul Glenn further describes when one performs an act, not evil in
itself, from there flows two effects-one good and one evil.
1. The evil effect must not precede the good effect. It is a fundamental
principle of ethics that evil may never be willed directly, whether it be a
means or an end to be achieved. One cannot do evil so good may come of
it. As the saying goes, "the end moto does not justify the means."
2. There must be a reason sufficiently grave calling for the act in its good
effect. If this condition cannot be fulfilled, then there is no adequate reason
for the act at all, and the act is prohibited in view of its evil effect. The
sufficiency of the reason must be determined by the nature, circumstances,
and importance of the act.
3. The intention of the agent (person, doer) must be honest. If the person
really wills the evil effect, then there is no possibility that the act is
acceptable. The direct willing of evil is always against reason and, hence,
against the principles of ethics.
Case Situation:
• You are a doctor at a hospital. You have five seriously ill patients,
four of whom are in urgent need of organ transplants. You
cannot help them because there were no available organs that
can be used to save their lives. The fifth patient, a criminal, has a
lingering illness that can no longer be treated. If he dies, you will
be able to save the other four patients by using his organs for
transplant.
• What will you do?
• Justify your answer using moral decision-making
Steps in Solving a
Moral Dilemma
 1. Examine the acts in
relation to the agent
• The immorality of human acts is
determined by examining the acts in
themselves in their relation to the
agent (person, doer) who performs
them.
• The agent and the facts surrounding
the act must be assessed.
2. Determine the Consequences of the Acts

The second step of testing the morality or immorality of a human

act is called consequentialism.

The principle of consequentialism suggests that one must weigh

the consequences of a human act to determine whether it is
moral or immoral.
 3. Identify the
intention of the acts

• For St. Thomas, the morality or

immorality of the act resides in
the intention of the person.
• If the agent intends to cause
harmful consequences, then
the act is immoral.
 4. Decide in accordance to divine and
natural laws which govern moral life.

• St. Thomas holds that not all aspects of the human person
are either moral or immoral.
• Nonetheless, he suggests that divine and natural laws are
the criteria by which people can judge the morality or
immorality of their moral decisions especially when they
are faced with moral dilemmas.
• In pursuit of moral decisions, the human person must
discern and make all the right choices by relating them to
divine law and the ultimate good of humanity.
END
K.S.T.