LESSON 3

MORAL DILEMMAS

 Intended Learning
Outcomes:

Explain moral dilemma as a moral
dilemma as a moral experience
Distinguish between a moral dilemma
and a false dilemma
 ACTIVITY

Read “The Pregnant Lady and
the Dynamite”, then answer the
questions given.
 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, high tide will be upon them
and unless she is unstuck, they will all be drowned
except the woman whose heads is out of the cave.
Fortunately (or unfornutely), someone has with him
a stick of dynamite. There seems 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?
 ANALYSIS

What would you do if you were one of the
men?
Explain why you decided to act that way?
 The situation or the experience you went
through is a moral dilemma. What then is a
moral dilemma?
 Is finding yourself in a moral dilemma, a
moral experience? Why or why not?
 KEY TAKEAWAYS

 A moral dilemma is a ”decision making
problem between two possible moral
imperatives, neither of which is
unambiguously acceptable or preferable”.
 A moral dilemma is a situation where a
person has the moral obligation to choose
between two options both based on moral
standards, but he/she cannot choose both,
and choosing one means violating the other.
 KEY TAKEAWAYS

 In a moral dilemma, one is caught between
two options. It is a ”damn-if-you- do and
damn-if you don’t situation. One is in a
deadlock.
 False dilemma are situations 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 right or and a wrong unlike moral
dilemma where both choices are wrong.
 LESSON 4

THE THREE
 LEVELS
OF
MORAL DILEMMAS
 Intended Learning
Outcome

 Illustrate the three levels of
moral dilemma
 ACTIVITY
READ the following dilemmas:

DILEMMA 1

The mission of Catholic School A is to serve

the poor by giving quality education. It is a
torn between the obligation to charge low
tuition to help the poor and to pay better
salaries to keep quality teachers.
 ACTIVITY

DILEMMA 2

Heinz’s wife was dying from a particular type of

cancer. Doctors said a new drug might save her. The
drug had been discovered by a local chemist, and the
Heinz tried desperately to buy some, but the chemist
was charging ten times the money it cost to make a
drug, and this was much more than the Heinz could
afford.
 ACTIVITY

DILEMMA 2

Heinz could only raise half the money, even

after help from family and friends. He
explained to the chemist that his wife was
dying and asked if he could have the drug
cheaper or pay the rest of the money later.
 ACTIVITY

DILEMMA 2

The chemist refused, saying that he had

discovered the drug and was going to make
money from it. The husband was desperate to
save his wife, so later that night he broke into
the chemist’s laboratory and stole the drug.
 ACTIVITY

DILEMMA 3
A principal ought to welcome and encourage parents
and community participation to school affairs. Based
on her experience, parents and community are
passive and so the principal always ends up deciding
and doing things just the same. She is obliged to
observe parents and community participation which
do not give any input at all at the same time she is
obliged to accomplish things on time.
 ANALYSIS

 Among the 3 dilemmas, which is an
example of an Individual dilemma?
Organizational dilemma?
Structural dilemma?
 How do the 3 dilemmas differ?
 KEY TAKEAWAYS

 Moral dilemmas comes in three levels – individual,
organizational or structural.
 Individual dilemmas concern dilemmas that
individual persons face.
 Organizational dilemmas refer to dilemmas between
organizational benefits versus individual member’s
welfare.
 Structural dilemmas concern dilemmas faced by
groups or individuals as a result of structural
relationships.
 KEY TAKEAWAYS

 A world organizations like the United Nations is
usually faced with this dilemma – sovereignty of
nations versus worlds order.
 I f confronted with a moral dilemma, choose the
greater good and lesser evil or do only what you can
where you are (Fletcher) or love and do you will
(St. Augustine). The extent of one’s obligation and
responsibility is the extent of one’s ability and the
measure of the “extent” is one’s capacity for love.