At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

• Define moral dilemma

• Recall moral dilemmas in your personal experiences
• Identify the types and three levels of moral dilemmas
• Appraise experiences as moral dilemma or non-dilemma
• Assess whether the moral dilemma is on the micro, meso, or macro level

“SWERVE OR NOT”

You are driving a long haul truck at 80mph when up ahead you see a traffic jam
begin to form. You try and slow down but nothing happens. In a panic you slam on the
breaks but its the worst case scenario; the breaks don’t work.

Directly ahead of you there are 3 lanes and 3 cars, If you lose control of the truck
now, you wont stop in time and everyone dies. You have 3 options:
• You do nothing and you will smash into the car directly in front of you. This car
has been dangerously overloaded, you can see at least 4 children in the back seat
and someone in the passenger seat, there are at least 6 people in front of you and
4 of them are children.
• You swerve right there is a young couple.
• You swerve left there is a single elderly person.

What would likely be your decision?

The problem above is not supposed to be a problem. You would have thought that 6
lives matter over 2 or 1. The last thing you would have chosen among the options would be
number 1. Nevertheless, let’s complicate it by adding information you couldn’t possibly know
in real life and bring this back to a thought experiment.
1) Suppose the young couple were on their way to murdering someone who hadn’t
really done anything wrong. Would that change your mind? (WTCYM)
2) What if one of the couple was also pregnant in this scenario? Would that change
your mind?
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 3) What if there was 1 unseen infant in a car seat with the elderly person. WTCYM?
What if there were 3?
4) What if the elderly person were one of the worlds greatest doctors? WTCYM?
5) What if the road were slick on the left and going left might result in total loss of
control and possible complete chaos? WTCYM?

Moral conflict is a fact of moral life. It is something that we can never do away with. It
is embedded in the crucial decisions that we make, particularly in moments that we are
faced with what is and what should be. As moral as we want to be, our convictions are
oftentimes challenged, and if not strong enough, are dejectedly compromised. These
challenges are products of the evolving values and moral systems of our society.

What is a Moral Dilemma?

A dilemma is a situation where a person is

forced to choose between two or more conflicting
options, neither of which is acceptable. As we can
see, the key here is that the person has choices to
make that will all have results he/she does not
want. For example, a town mayor faces a dilemma
about how to protect and preserve a virgin forest
and at the same time allow miners and loggers for
economic development in the town.

It must be noted, however, that if a person is in a difficult situation but is not forced
to choose between two or more options, then that person is not in a dilemma. The least that
we can say is that that person is just experiencing a problematic or distressful situation.
Thus, the most logical thing to do for that person is to look for alternatives or solutions to
address the problem.

When dilemmas involve human actions which have moral implications, they are
called ethical or moral dilemmas.

Moral dilemmas arise due to inconsistency in our principles. In understanding the

morality of an individual, we need to emphasize that majority of the moral persons are
those who sturdily disposed to stand fast by their reflectively chosen principles and ideals
when tempted by consideration chosen that are morally irrelevant.

We experience a moral dilemma if we are faced with two actions, each of which, it
would be correct to say in the appropriate sense of “ought”, that it ought to be done, and
both of which we cannot do.

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 There are several types of moral dilemmas, but the most common of them are
categorized into the following: 1) epistemic and ontological dilemmas, 2) self-imposed and
world-imposed dilemmas, 3) obligation dilemmas and prohibition dilemmas, and 4) single
agent and multi-person dilemmas.

1) Epistemic moral dilemmas - involve situations wherein two or more moral

requirements conflict with each other and that the moral agent hardly knows which
of the conflicting moral requirements takes precedence over the other. In other
words, the moral agent here does not know which option is morally right or wrong.

Example: I ought to honor my promise to my son to be home early, but on my

way home I saw a sick old man who needs to be brought to the hospital.
Where does my actual duty lie? We cannot deny that there are conflicting
duties (moral requirements) here, but we need to note that we want a fuller
knowledge of the situation: Is an important purpose being served by my
getting home early? How serious is the condition of the sick old man? Indeed, I
could hardly decide which option is morally right in this situation. However,
one option must be better than the other; only, it needs fuller knowledge of the
situation―thus the term “epistemic” moral dilemmas.

Ontological moral dilemmas - involve situations wherein two or more moral

requirements conflict with each other, yet neither of these conflicting moral
requirements overrides each other. This is not to say that the moral agent does not
know which moral requirement is stronger than the other. The point is that neither of
the moral requirements is stronger than the other; hence, the moral agent can hardly
choose between the conflicting moral requirements.

Example: A military doctor is attending to the needs of the wounded soldiers

in the middle of the war. Unfortunately, two soldiers urgently need a blood
transfusion. However, only one bag of blood is available at the moment. To
whom shall the doctor administer the blood transfusion? For sure, we could
not tell whether administering a blood transfusion to Soldier A is more moral
than administering a blood transfusion to Soldier B, and vice versa.

2) A Self-imposed Moral Dilemma is caused by the moral agent’s wrongdoings.

Example: For example, David is running for the position of the town mayor.
During the campaign period, he promised the indigenous peoples in his
community to protect their virgin forest just to gain their votes, but at the
same time, he seeks financial support from a mining corporation. Fortunately,
David won the elections, yet he is faced with the dilemma of fulfilling his
promised to the indigenous peoples and at the same time allows the mining
corporation to destroy their forest. Indeed, through his own actions, David

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 created a situation in which it is impossible for him to be discharged from both
obligations.

A World-imposed Moral Dilemma means that certain events in the world place the
agent in a situation of moral conflict.

Example: William Styron’s famous Sophie’s Choice: “Sophie Zawistowska has

been asked to choose which of her two children, Eva or Jan, will be sent to the
gas chamber in Auschwitz. An SS doctor, Fritz Jemand von Niemand, will
grant a dispensation to only one of Sophie’s children. If she does not choose
which one should live, Dr. von Niemand will send both to their death. Sophie
chooses her daughter Eva to go to the gas chamber. Her son, Jan, is sent to
the Children’s Camp.”

3) Obligation dilemmas are situations in which more than one feasible action is
obligatory.

Example: Sartre (1957) tells of a student whose brother had been killed in the
German offensive of 1940. The student wanted to avenge his brother and to
fight forces that he regarded as evil. But the student’s mother was living with
him, and he was her one consolation in life. The student believed that he had
conflicting obligations. Sartre describes him as being torn between two kinds
of morality: one of limited scope but certain efficacy, personal devotion to his
mother; the other of much wider scope but uncertain efficacy, attempting to
contribute to the defeat of an unjust aggressor.

Prohibition dilemmas involve cases in which all feasible actions are forbidden.

Example: See Styron’s Sophie’s Choice above.

4) Single Agent Dilemma - the agent “ought, all things considered, to do A, ought, all
things considered, to do B, and she cannot do both A and B”. In other words, the
moral agent is compelled to act on two or more equally the same moral options but
she cannot choose both.

Example: A medical doctor found out that her patient has HIV. For sure, the
medical doctor may experience tension between the legal requirement to
report the case and the desire to respect confidentiality, although the medical
code of ethics acknowledges our obligation to follow legal requirements and
to intervene to protect the vulnerable.
Multi-person Dilemma - occurs in situations that involve several persons like a
family, an organization, or a community who is expected to come up with consensual
decision on a moral issue at hand. The multi-person dilemma requires more than
choosing what is right, it also entails that the persons involved reached a general

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 consensus. In such a manner, the moral obligation to do what is right becomes more
complicated. On the one hand, the integrity of the decision ought to be defended on
moral grounds. On the other hand, the decision must also prevent the organization
from breaking apart

Examples: A family may be torn between choosing to terminate or prolong the

life of a family member. An organization may have to choose between
complying with the wage law by cutting its workforce or by retaining its
current workforce by paying them below the required minimum wage.

1) Individual/Micro-level. The dilemma here is when the employee’s ethical standards

are in opposition to that of his or her employer, which could lead to tensions in the
workplace.

Dilemma: You see one of your close colleagues speaking inappropriately to another
member of staff. This has been going on for a while, and you’re sure that what you are
seeing is sexual harassment. You know your colleague’s actions are wrong, but you don’t
want to ruin the friendship you’ve developed with them over the past few years. What would
you do?

2) Organizational/ Meso-level. Ethical Standards

are seen in company policies. Still, there might be a gap
between those who run the business whose ethical
standards deviate from that of the organization.

Dilemma: A new manager has been appointed to

lead your department, and you find out that he is the
boss’s nephew. You also discover that he doesn’t have
the appropriate qualifications, and that he may not have
been interviewed before he was hired. Do you question
the decision or simply accept it?

3) Systemic/Macro-level. Ethics, here, is predisposed by the larger operating

environment of the company. Political pressures, economic conditions, societal attitudes
and others, can affect the operating standards and policies of the organization where it
might face moral dilemmas outside of the organization but within the macro-society where
it belongs.

1) What are the moral dilemmas that college students like you usually encounter?
Could you identify what type/s of dilemma under which your dilemmas fall?

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2) Recall atleast three experiences that made you feel problematic, distressed, and
confused. Evaluate whether each of these experiences is a dilemma or non-
dilemma. Also, assess whether that experience is a moral or non-moral dilemma.
a) How exactly did you respond to these problematic experiences?
b) Were you able to cope with them?
c) If given the chance to go back, would you change your decisions?
Why?

3) In the workplace, should employees experiencing moral dilemmas leave their job
no matter how compensating they are for them?

SYNTHESIS
A dilemma is a situation where a person is forced to choose between two or
more conflicting options, neither of which is acceptable.
Moral dilemmas arise due to inconsistency in our principles.
Moral Dilemmas vary in types such as epistemic and ontological; self-imposed
and world-imposed; obligation and prohibition; single agent and multi-person
Moral dilemmas are experience in the individual, organizational and systemic
levels.

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