Ethical dilemma

<p>An <strong>ethical dilemma</strong> or <strong>ethical paradox</strong> is a decision-making problem between two possible <a title="Moral imperative" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_imperative">moral imperatives</a>, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable. The complexity arises out of the situational conflict in which obeying one would result in transgressing another. Sometimes called ethical paradoxes in <a class="mw-redirect" title="Moral philosophy" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_philosophy">moral philosophy</a>, ethical dilemmas may be invoked to refute an <a class="mw-redirect" title="Ethical" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical">ethical</a> system or <a class="mw-redirect" title="Moral code" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_code">moral code</a>, or to improve it so as to resolve the <a title="Paradox" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox">paradox</a>.</p>

<h2>Contents</h2>

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<h2 class="section-heading collapsible-heading open-block" tabindex="0"><span id="Definition" class="mw-headline">Definition</span><span class="mw-editsection"><a class="mw-ui-icon mw-ui-icon-element mw-ui-icon-minerva-edit-enabled edit-page mw-ui-icon-flush-right" title="Edit section: Definition" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethical_dilemma&action=edit&section=1" data-section="1">Edit</a></span></h2>

<p>An <strong>ethical dilemma</strong> is a decision making problem between two possible <a title="Moral imperative" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_imperative">moral imperatives</a>, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable. It's sometimes called an ethical paradox in <a class="mw-redirect" title="Moral philosophy" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_philosophy">moral philosophy</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_dilemma#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup></p>

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<h2 class="section-heading collapsible-heading open-block" tabindex="0"><span id="Examples" class="mw-headline">Examples</span><span class="mw-editsection"><a class="mw-ui-icon mw-ui-icon-element mw-ui-icon-minerva-edit-enabled edit-page mw-ui-icon-flush-right" title="Edit section: Examples" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethical_dilemma&action=edit&section=2" data-section="2">Edit</a></span></h2>

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<li>A runaway <a title="Trolley problem" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem">trolley</a> is heading down the tracks toward 5 workmen who will be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. You are on a footbridge over the tracks that is in between the approaching trolley and the five workmen. Next to you on this footbridge is a stranger who happens to be very large. If you do nothing the trolley will proceed, causing the deaths of the five workmen. The only way to save the lives of these workmen is to push this stranger off the bridge and onto the tracks below, where his large body will stop the trolley, causing his death. Should you push the stranger onto the tracks in order to save the five workmen?<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_dilemma#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup></li>

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<li>There are scientific projects that aim to create small robotic implants that can move through your blood or attach to your nerve endings. Either by electrical stimulation or a release of chemicals, these bots may regulate our bodies before we even realize that something is wrong. Would you invest in these small bots in order to live a possibly longer life?<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_dilemma#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup></li>

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<ul>

<li><a title="Abortion debate" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_debate">Abortion debate</a></li>

<li><a title="Graded absolutism" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graded_absolutism">Graded absolutism</a></li>

<li><a title="Samaritan's dilemma" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan%27s_dilemma">Samaritan's dilemma</a></li>

<li><a title="Suicide" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide">Suicide</a></li>

<li><a title="Marriage" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage">Marriage</a></li>

<li><a title="Euthanasia" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia">Euthanasia</a></li>

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<h2 class="section-heading collapsible-heading open-block" tabindex="0"><span id="Responses_to_the_arguments" class="mw-headline">Responses to the arguments</span><span class="mw-editsection"><a class="mw-ui-icon mw-ui-icon-element mw-ui-icon-minerva-edit-enabled edit-page mw-ui-icon-flush-right" title="Edit section: Responses to the arguments" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethical_dilemma&action=edit&section=3" data-section="3">Edit</a></span></h2>

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<td class="mbox-text"><span class="ambox-learn-more">Learn more</span>

<div class="mbox-text-span">This section <strong>does not <a title="Wikipedia:Citing sources" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources">cite</a> any <a title="Wikipedia:Verifiability" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability">sources</a></strong>.</div>

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<p>Ethical dilemmas can be solved in various ways, for example by showing that the claimed situation is only apparent and does not really exist (thus is not a <a title="Paradox" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox">paradox</a> logically), or that the solution to the ethical dilemma involves choosing the greater good and lesser evil (as discussed in <a title="Value theory" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_theory">value theory</a>), or that the whole <a title="Framing (social sciences)" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences)">framing</a> of the problem omits creative alternatives (such as <a title="Peacemaking" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacemaking">peacemaking</a>), or (more recently) that <a title="Situational ethics" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_ethics">situational ethics</a> or <a title="Situated ethics" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situated_ethics">situated ethics</a> must apply because the case cannot be removed from context and still be understood. <em>See also <a title="Case-based reasoning" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case-based_reasoning">case-based reasoning</a> on this process.</em> An alternative to situational ethics is <a title="Graded absolutism" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graded_absolutism">graded absolutism</a>.</p>

<p>A popular ethical conflict is that between an <a title="Moral imperative" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_imperative">imperative</a> or <a title="Injunction" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injunction">injunction</a> not to steal and one to care for a family that you cannot afford to feed without stolen money. Debates on this often revolve around the availability of alternate means of income or support such as a <a title="Social safety net" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_safety_net">social safety net</a>, <a title="Charitable organization" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_organization">charity</a>, etc. The debate is in its starkest form when framed as stealing food. Under an ethical system in which stealing is always wrong and letting one's family die from starvation is always wrong, a person in such a situation would be forced to commit one wrong to avoid committing another, and be in constant conflict with those whose view of the acts varied.</p>

<p>However, there are no legitimate ethical systems in which stealing is more wrong than letting one's family die. Ethical systems do in fact allow for, and sometimes outline, tradeoffs or priorities in decisions. Resolving ethical dilemmas is rarely simple or clearcut and very often involves revisiting similar dilemmas that recur within societies.</p>

<p>According to some philosophers and sociologists, e.g. <a title="Karl Marx" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx">Karl Marx</a> and <a title="Marxist ethics" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_ethics">marxist ethics</a>, it is the different life experience of people and the different exposure of them and their families in these roles (the rich constantly robbing the poor, the poor in a position of constant begging and subordination) that creates <a title="Social class" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class">social class</a> differences. In other words, ethical dilemmas can become political and economic factions that engage in long-term recurring struggles.</p>

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<h2 class="section-heading collapsible-heading open-block" tabindex="0"><span id="References" class="mw-headline">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><a class="mw-ui-icon mw-ui-icon-element mw-ui-icon-minerva-edit-enabled edit-page mw-ui-icon-flush-right" title="Edit section: References" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethical_dilemma&action=edit&section=4" data-section="4">Edit</a></span></h2>

<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><strong><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_dilemma#cite_ref-1">^{</a></strong></span> }<span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web"><a class="external text" href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ethical_dilemma" rel="nofollow">"ethical dilemma | Definition of ethical dilemma in English by Oxford Dictionaries"</a>. <em>Oxford Dictionaries English</em><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2017-11-03</span></span>.</cite></span></li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><strong><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_dilemma#cite_ref-2">^{</a></strong></span> }<span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation news"><a class="external text" href="http://psychopixi.com/uncategorized/25-moral-dilemmas/" rel="nofollow">"25 Moral Dilemmas"</a>. <em>Pixi's Blog</em>. 2013-05-09<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2017-11-03</span></span>.</cite></span></li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><strong><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_dilemma#cite_ref-3">^{</a></strong></span> }<span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation news"><a class="external text" href="https://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2014/12/10-emerging-ethical-dilemmas-science-and-technology" rel="nofollow">"10 Emerging Ethical Dilemmas in Science and Technology"</a>. <em>Bioscience Technology</em>. 2014-12-08<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2017-11-03</span></span>.</cite></span></li>

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<h2 class="section-heading collapsible-heading open-block" tabindex="0"><span id="External_links" class="mw-headline">External links</span><span class="mw-editsection"><a class="mw-ui-icon mw-ui-icon-element mw-ui-icon-minerva-edit-enabled edit-page mw-ui-icon-flush-right" title="Edit section: External links" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethical_dilemma&action=edit&section=5" data-section="5">Edit</a></span></h2>

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<li><a class="external text" href="http://www.quose.com/" rel="nofollow">A database of user-contributed moral dilemma questions</a></li>

<li><a class="external text" href="http://www.friesian.com/dilemma.htm" rel="nofollow">The Generalized Structure of Ethical Dilemmas</a></li>

<li><a class="external text" href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-dilemmas/" rel="nofollow">The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry</a></li>

<li><a class="external text" href="http://www.bostonreview.net/rebecca-saxe-common-morality-cognitive-science" rel="nofollow">Saxe (MIT) Do the Right Thing</a></li>

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<div class="content last-modified-barcontent"><span class="last-modified-bartext"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:History/Ethical_dilemma">Last edited 2 months ago</a> by <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Gehenna1510">Gehenna1510</a></span></div>

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Ethical dilemma

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