THE PREGNANT LADY AND THE DYNAMITE

• A pregnant woman leading a group of five people out of a cave on a coast is stuck in the
mouth of that cave. In a short time, a high tide will be upon them unless she is unstuck,
they will be drowned except the woman whose head is out of the cave. Fortunately
(unfortunately) someone has with him a stick of dynamite. There is no way to get the
pregnant woman loose without using the dynamite which will inevitably kill her; but if
they do not use it everyone else will drown. What should they do?
MORAL DILEMMAS
 MORAL DILEMMAS

A moral dilemma is a Ethical dilemma – a

problem in the decision decision making problem
making between two between two possible
possible options, neither moral imperatives,
of which is absolutely neither of which is
acceptable from an unambiguously
ethical perspective. acceptable or preferable.
 The agent is required to do each of the two
(or more) actions which are morally
unacceptable;

BASED ON THE
DEFINITION, The agent can do each of the action;
MORAL
DILEMMA HAVE
THE FOLLOWING
IN COMMON: The agent cannot do both (or all) of the
action.
Moral dilemmas are situations where
two or more moral values or duties
make demands on the decision-maker,
who can only honor one of them, and
thus will violate at least one important
moral concern, no matter what he or
she decides to do.
FALSE DILEMMA

• It is a situation where the decision-

maker has a moral duty to do one
thing, but is tempted or under
pressure to do something else. A
false dilemma is a choice between a
right and a wrong.