Thankfully most of us do not come across dire situations that present a moral dilemma, but it is always a very interesting exercise to consider a dilemma and our reaction to it. So, I now present you with a list of ten agonizing moral dilemmas, in no particular order. (Be sure to tell us what you would do in the comments.)
10. Concentration Camp
You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son who tried to escape and wants you to pull the chair from underneath him. He says that if you don’t he will not only kill your son but some other innocent inmate as well. You don’t have any doubt that he means what he says. What should you do?
9. The Accident
You are an emergency worker that has just been called to the scene of an accident. When you arrive you see that the car belongs to your wife. Fearing the worst you rush over to see she is trapped in her car with another man.
She sees you and although barely conscious, she manages to mouth the words “I’m sorry”…
You don’t understand, but her look answers you question. The man next to her is her lover with whom she’s been having an affair.
You reel back in shock, devastated by what her eyes have just told you. As you step back, the wreck in front of you comes into focus. You see your wife is seriously hurt and she needs attention straight away. Even if she gets attention there’s a very high chance she’ll die.
You look at the seat next to her and see her lover. He’s bleeding heavily from a wound to the neck and you need to stem the flow of blood immediately. It will only take about 5 minutes to stop, but it will mean your wife will definitely die.
If you tend to your wife however, the man will bleed to death despite the fact it could have been avoided.
Who would you choose to work on?
8. Spam Filtering
You are the network administrator for a rather large company. You have a young family and need your job to support them. As part of your responsibility as a network administrator is to monitor the emails for the organization. Usually this just means occasionally allow through emails for staff members that have been accidentally blocked by the spam filters.
One day you get a helpdesk request from a staff member asking for an email to get released. Normally it’s standard procedure except this time the request has come from the wife of a very good friend of yours. You recognize the name on the helpdesk request so quickly attend to the problem. As part of the procedure you need to manually open up the email to ensure that it isn’t spam, so you do and you discover that it certainly isn’t spam. You find that it’s actually an email to your friends wife from her lover. You scan the rest of the contents of the email and there is no doubt that she has been having an affair for some time now.
You release the email, but you can’t decide what to do. You’re initial reaction is to call your friend up and tell him about the email, however you quickly realize that company policy is very strict about revealing the contents of confidential emails of staff members regardless of the contents and unless someone’s life is in immediate danger, under no circumstances are you permitted to reveal the information.
In any case you know that revealing this information presents great risk, because even if you don’t do it directly, there is a good chance that the dots will be joined somewhere along the line and you will be found out. However you feel that by not telling you friend that you are aiding his wife get away with adultery and this troubles you greatly.
What do you do?
7. The Neighbor
You have a wonderful daughter. She is 8 years old and has always been a happy outgoing child. But a while ago something terrible happened, she was raped. You are quite sure that the person who raped her is your neighbor. Your daughter is so traumatized she has stopped speaking, but she in other ways been able to convince you that he is the one. Unfortunately not enough evidence can be found to convict him.
You try to put your life back together. You move to another house and try to help your daughter in any way you can, but it is clear that the experience has ruined her life and that of your family.
One evening you have taken your wife out to dinner at a restaurant when you spot your former neighbor at another table. He is eating alone and looks unhappy. You quickly finish eating and leave. The next day you find out that your former neighbors wife has been murdered. Enough evidence to convict him of the murder is soon found, and at first you are very happy, finally his will get what he deserves.
But then you remember that you saw him in the restaurant at the time of the murder. you know he did not murder his wife. Maybe he paid someone else to do it… You remember that the police said that it had been made it look like a burglary, maybe it was…
You sit down to think. If you keep quiet he will be convicted for the murder, and the real murderer will go free If you give him an alibi, he will go free, but you can’t be sure the real murderer will be found, and it is possible that the evil bastard paid someone to do it… What do you do?
6. The Pregnant Woman
A pregnant woman leading a group of 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 head is out of the cave. Fortunately, (or unfortunately,) 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 will drown. What should they do?
5. Nieces and Daughters
You and your family are going away for the weekend. Your daughter is 7 and is best friends with your niece, who is also 7. Your families are very close and your daughter asks if your niece can come with you on your holiday. You have been on holidays together before and don’t see any problem, so you agree.
You arrive at your holiday destination and the house you are staying at backs onto a beach. The girls ask if they can go for a swim. You tell them that they have to wait until you have unpacked the car, but they can play on the sand directly in front of the beach. They run down to the sand, and you begin to unpack the car. After about 5 minutes, you hear screaming coming from the direction of the beach and it sounds like the girls.
You run down to see what the matter is, and you discover that they hadn’t listened to you and have gone for a swim. There is no one else on the beach and the girls are caught in a rip.
The girls are really struggling, particularly your niece who isn’t as strong a swimmer as your daughter.
You swim out quickly, but when you get there, you realize that there is no way you will be able to get both the girls back into shore on your own. You realize that an agonizing decision will need to be made.
You need to decide which of the girls you will rescue first, you have enough strength and energy to rescue them both, but you can only do it one at a time. You look at the two girls, and your niece is really struggling to hold her head above water and you know if you take your daughter back first, there will be little or no chance that she will survive.
Your daughter is struggling also, but is much stronger in the water and you estimate that if you take your niece back to shore first, there’s probably a 50% chance that your daughter will be able to stay afloat long enough for you return, but you simply don’t know how long she will hold on for.
4. Hit and Run
One morning you are driving to work, and as per usual you are running a bit late, so you are driving a touch faster than the speed limit. You reach down to your stereo to change the CD, when all of a sudden your car hits something solid. You spin to a stop, but not before several more cars have run into you and each other in an attempt to avoid the accident.
As you look up and out of your car, you can see that you hit a person, and that the person is not looking very good. In fact, you are sure that they are dead. You shakily get out of your car, and look around at the damage that has been caused. Several cars have been badly smashed up, but more importantly you have killed someone with your careless driving.
As you are standing there in shock, a woman comes up to you, tears running down her face, and obviously very shook up. As a natural reaction, you ask her what is wrong. She gives you a funny look, and then she explains that she just ran over someone. You ask her where this person is, and she points towards the person that you ran over!
You don’t understand why, but for some reason this woman thinks that she caused this accident and killed the person, when in fact you are well aware that you were the cause. Whoever accepts the blame is likely to be placed in jail for a very long time. If you let the woman take the blame, there is a very good chance you will get away with it all. However, there is also the chance that you could be placed in jail for even longer for trying to cover it up.
3. Drug Bust
You are on holiday in Bali with your 18 year old son and wife. You have been there for a week and are ready to head home. All three of you are at the airport getting ready to board your plane, when an armed officer comes around with a sniffer dog. You have all your bags on a trolley, and the dog sniffs at both your wife and your bag, and passes over it, however when he gets to your sons bag, he begins to get a bit more active.
You look over at your son and he’s looking a little nervous. You know he’s smoked a little marijuana in his time, but generally, he’s a good kid, and you certainly didn’t think he’d actually be stupid enough to bring it back on the plane with him. At first you feel angry that he would do such a thing and start planning your responsibility lecture, but then you realize that you are in Bali, and they have a zero tolerance policy on drugs, meaning your son could be jailed for life, or worse, executed, if he does have some illicit materials in his bag.
You look at your wife and realize she has come to the same conclusion and has gone pale with fear.
The armed officer accompanying the dog is beginning to look more stern with every sniff the dog takes and looks directly at you and asks you to open to the bag.
You do, and as the officer begins to take things out of the bag, you see to your horror that there is a small quantity of marijuana stashed in with your sons belongings.
The officer looks at you and asks “Who’s bag is this?”
You realize you have to answer, but the answer won’t be easy. You see your wife in the corner of your eye, and she is about to step forward and claim it as her own; what do you say?
2. The Mad Bomber
A madman who has threatened to explode several bombs in crowded areas has been apprehended. Unfortunately, he has already planted the bombs and they are scheduled to go off in a short time. It is possible that hundreds of people may die. The authorities cannot make him divulge the location of the bombs by conventional methods. He refuses to say anything and requests a lawyer to protect his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. In exasperation, some high level official suggests torture. This would be illegal, of course, but the official thinks that it is nevertheless the right thing to do in this desperate situation. Do you agree? If you do, would it also be morally justifiable to torture the mad bomber’s innocent wife if that is the only way to make him talk? Why?
1. Lifeboat
You are going on a cruise. 2 days into the cruise your ship experiences technical difficulties and the captain says it needs to make an unscheduled stop. A couple of hours later the captain makes another announcement that the ships hull has been breached and that you will all need to start heading to life rafts and abandon ship. The ships life rafts are lowered as people begin to pile in and you get on board one of the life rafts.
As it is lowered however, it hits the side of the ship, putting a hole in the side of the raft, and when it hits the water it begins to sink. There are 10 people in the boat and to prevent it sinking, you quickly work out that by having 9 people working for 10 minutes while 1 person rests you can bail the water out with their hands, quick enough to keep the water at bay and preventing it from sinking, but you have to continually keep it up to ensure that the boat doesn’t sink. By being able to rest one person you are greatly able to increase the length of time you can keep the boat afloat, however if the rescue team doesn’t turn up you calculate that within 5 hours the boat will sink and you will all die.
While taking your break, you glance over to another boat and notice that a friend of yours who you met on the boat is there and has noticed your predicament. He is signaling for you to come over and join them on their boat so you don’t have to continue bailing water out. There is only just enough room for one more person. You also notice that their boat is moving away rapidly with the current, but your boat can’t keep up because the hole is affecting its buoyancy.
You estimate that if you jump ship, you will force all 9 remaining crew members to bail water continuously, which will reduce the total time they can stay afloat to just 2 hours, but will ensure that you will be able to live long enough to be rescued.
If you stay aboard, you will not have another chance to jump ship, and there’s no guarantee that the rescue will arrive in 5 hours, meaning you will drown, however by staying you give everyone a better chance of survival.
As you watch the boat with your friend drift away, you realize you have about 30 seconds to make a decision:
a) Do you stay on your current boat and help keep it afloat as long as possible and hope that the rescue will arrive in 5 hours
b) Do you go to your friends boat, ensuring your rescue, but reducing the chances of the others on the boat being rescued?
Source: Moral Bliss
sorry.it should read “the list” not “your list”.
Shroom,
I owe an apology. Your exuberance in discussing a topic was not cause for me to judge it’s merits. I blame it on posting on day two of no sleep due to an abcessed tooth which put me in an intolerant mood. Feeling slightly better today, so I will now join in and answer the dilemmas posed.
10) My son is already a dead man, but it will not be by my hands.
9)I would follow triage protocol. If I were not able to distance myself from emotions in that type of job I would most likely have already been filtered out.
8)Have actually been in a similar situation. I would follow company procedure and let the chips fall where they may. There’s a reason the saying “Don’t kill the messenger” is still around.
7)I would not step forward.
6)The dynamite blast would likely cause a cave in, unless the said person with the stick was a demolitions expert. So all are likely to risk death with either option. Better one than none.
5)I would rescue the niece while explaining to my daughter to follow me by swimming parallel to the beach, avoiding the rip that will wear a swimmer out and allow rest breaks, such as floating, until my daughter has regained her breath and strength. While the scenario said to choose one to actively save, it did not preclude communicating with the other victim.
4)In reality, prison is not a likely outcome unless there are mitigating circumstances (drugs, alcohol, etc) since these were not mentioned, I will assume it is not a factor and explain to the woman that I am not sure exactly what happened, and then give a truthful and factual account to the investigating officers and let the chips fall where they may.
3)If I had prior knowledge of my son’s love for the herb, I would consider it part of my responsibility to ensure he understood the laws before traveling. Since I had prior knowledge of a potential situation and did not do my part to prevent it, I feel I am also culpable. And as with question 10, I am morally responsible (according to my definition of parent) to prevent him from a lifetime .yes.a lifetime spent in a horrid prison or the death penalty, I would step forward and claim the bag.
2)The word “threatened” to me is the key to this situation. There is no proof. I would not resort to torture, nor would I involve the wife unless she were somehow incriminated in the supposed plot.
1)I would stay in the lifeboat. In for a penny, in for a pound. Dance with the one that brung ya. Or insert any other quaint phrase that applies.
I found it interesting that many replies seemed to contradict each other. Some would fight heroically to save a doomed son from hanging, yet would let them suffer the same potential fate if a small amount of drugs are involved.
We are such complex and interesting beings.
Hahah my bad, my list wasn’t a “be all” list, it was just what I thought was right, and I wanted to know the decisions other people would make based on the moral stand point rather than to try to wiggle out of each situation by trying to add a new twist to them. My opinnion is FAR from being the absolute answer to each situation since morality is actually supremely debatable and mine are only based off a few different theories established by some major philosophers
Sure it may sound condescending, but hey! Sure it’s encouraged to think outside the box, else how would our world progress right? But I feel in this exercise the situations should be taken at face value where the outcomes are already established. I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to be trying to find a solution where everyone is happy. Only when one can settle down and realize that there are only two outcomes can one THEN get depressed about which option in the dilemma one should pick. It’s not as emotional and stressful to try to think of a solution to solve all the problems rather than to HAVE to pick between your neice or your daughter.
Getwhattamean?
Shroom,
Thanks for your gallant acceptance of my apology. I henceforth promise not to post when delirious with pain.
10: I would jump the gaurd, even if I died in the process. Not like so many people aren’t gonna die anyways.
9: I don’t know what I would do. Is she sorry she was cheating, or sorry that she got caught?
8: I would tell my friend that I think he should see the email, though it wouldn’t be easy.
7: I would let him go to jail… play the ignorant one.
6: Try to get her out of the way harder! If she is stuck there, she is gonna die eventually. It also depends on how old the other people. if they are all old geezers, they should just die. if they are young, and maybe some children with them, blast her out of there.
5: I would try to save both of them. I love my brother way too much to be able to tell him “your daughter is dead, but it is okay because I saved mine.”
4: I am a strictly honest person. That statement right there should let you all know what I would do.
3: Well, the decision I would make in this one completely contradicts the statement i made for #4. I wouldn’t let my son take the blame, and I would never let my wife take the blame for something like that! I would use my cunning to try to get out of it, but i am not the only genius in the world ^^
2: Evacuate the city!!! Everyone get out right now!
1: well, I would like to believe that I would stay in the boat and try to last for those 5 hours. However, I know that I would leave and join my friend on his boat.
Dear Shroom,
albeit I agree with your Moral answers for each dillema (i thought your explanation of each of them except #10 were flawless), I must point that the purpose of the exercise is actually verify if people stick to the non-Moral answers.
The dillemas are dillemas because they present a difficult choice between what is MORALLY expected and what is EMOTIONALLY compelling. If it was not so, they wouldn’t be dillemas at all, would they?
And even so, I must disagree with your Moral view about #10. Integrity theory does not apply to the scenario at hand. The guard gave you the options so if you choose not to kill your son he will kill any other inmate. You know he’ll do it so YOUR choice will trigger the events. Of course he is responsible for the killing but what that particular exercise presents is that the two possible outcomes are trigged by YOUR course of action. The guard acts just as an instrument of impending doom, forcing you into the moral dillema, much like the agonizing and approaching death of #9 and the water of #5 and #1.
I’m sorry about any typos, mispellings and english grammar errors, for I am not a native English user.
Okay, see what ya think of these.
10. Not pull the chair. The bastard’ll kill another inmate anyway.
9. Save the man. He has a chance to live, and HE wasn’t cheating on me. She was.
8. Talk to the friends wife on the down-low (after printing out a copy of the incriminating e-mail with the footprints on it – that way, the twit can’t try getting me fired without me turning the e-mail over to her hubby… I’m ethical, not stupid).
7. Assuming I hadn’t killed the creep myself when my kid was molested? I’d tell the cops the truth.
6. I’d use the dynamite to close off wherever the tide was coming in and tell the pregnant lady to scream for outside help. Duh….
5. Knowing how well my kids swim? I’d save my niece first (I swear my kids are part tuna).
4. Tell the woman to calm down – I’m pretty sure it was my stupid fault.
3. No way I’d let my wife or my son run the risk of the death penalty for marijuanna. I’d take the rap and call in the Canadian consulate ASAP!
2. Torture the mad bomber. Don’t bring the guys wife into it unless I had evidence she was involved… but IMPLY to the bomber I’d hurt his missus.
1. “Screw you guys! I’m taking the next boat!” (You didn’t say that any of my friends or family was in my original lifeboat, so tough luck to them)
10. Really, I think I’ll just look at my son’s eyes and hope that he understands. It’s a terrible choice, but I shouldn’t risk another man’s life for my own selfish reasons.
9. This decision was ina way, spurred on by the sentence “Even if she gets attention there’s a very high chance she’ll die.” Again, I shouldn’t tend to my wife first just because she’s, well, my wife. I would save the man, although I’ll do it a little reluctantly. I wouldn’t leave the man to die just because I most probably hate him for what he’s done. One should never be blinded by hatred. After all, the man has a life too. I’ll do my best and see if I manage to save my wife after I save the man.
8. I would tell my friend about his wife’s affair. This concerns somebody’s marriage. I think a marriage is VERY VERY important. It’s not worth it “betraying” the friendship between me and my friend for the sake of my job. I know that a job is really important but, sometimes, morals are just equally as important.
7. I’ll tell the police exactly what I saw: Him at the restaurant, eating…yada yada yada. I’ll leave the case for the police to solve. After all, it’s not like I’m a professional FBI or some sort of great detective. I can’t prove him guilty of the murder, nor can I prove him innocent. Maybe he did pay someone to kill his wife. However, I’ll tell him that I will tell the police that I saw him at the restaurant, and that MIGHT, but not 100%, prove him innocent, that is if he is. (but that’s up to the police and judge to decide)On one condition, he must confess to the police about the rape incident.
6. I will not kill the woman. This has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with her being pregnant or not. The woman is innocent. Who gave you the right to end her life JUST because you can save more lives? It’s like killing one innocent child to save 99 criminals. People, MORALS!!! So what if you’re holding a stick of dynamite in your hand. I would never ever actively kill a per son like that, unless she’s stuck with the dynamite and I can only save her by killing every other person in the cave. If not, I WILL NOT kill the woman.
5. Honestly, I’d save my niece. Cos’ I have enough trust in my daughter that she can swim to safety or at the very least stay afloat till I get to her. I have faith in my daughter.
4. Seriously, some of you have NO, NADA, NONE, ZERO INTEGRITY. Take the blame. You did it, you pay for it. The guilt’s not worth living with even if you get away with the jail sentence. Trust me.
3. My son did it, he pay for it. I know that this is a hard, cruel and even sadistic choice, but sometimes, that’s the way life is.
2. DO NOT torture the wife. She is innocent. What gives you the right to torture her just for something that her husband did. She is innocent. Meaning, she probably didn’t know about it at all. Even if she did, she did not participate in her husband’s terrible terrorist activities. This proves that even if she knew what her husband was doing, she disapproved and disagreed with his actions. Or maybe she was simply too meek to turn her husband to the police before that. Or she was threatened and blackmailed by her own husband. And, the important thing is, THE BOMBER IS A MADMAN. He would just watch his wife die without an inkling of guilt or even concern, for that matter. Torture the madman for all I care, but torture him just enough to get the information needed out of him. Then stop immediately. Torture is not something funny. It’s very serious, although the bomber deserves it, after all, it is illegal.
1. I will STAY. Who gave me the right to run like a coward and abandon my comrades or rather, risk their lives to save my own skin. It’s a tough decision since it concerns my own life. Still, what’s the point of living when you’ve got such a heavy burden of pure guilt to carry on your shoulders. Die a fighter. Don’t live a coward. The value of a coward isn’t worth half a penny of a brave fighter who struggled to stay and help the rest as much as he could until the very end. All I can do is pray hard that the rescue teams would arrive soon enough to save all of us. I know my friend signaled for me to go over and join them on their boat so I don’t have to continue bailing water out and I can save my own life. I really appreciate him and I would like to thank him for that. I’ll shake my head and mouth “thank you” before their boat goes out of sight to let him know that his concern and kindness is greatly appreciated, just in case I might never get to get a chance or opportunity to thank him.
Shroom, your answers to the exercise are (almost) flawless. BUT, you shouldn’t give politically right answers. This exercise is NOT for you to give answers based on morals. The questions are just LINKED to morals. At that particular oint of time, when placed in the exact same situation, YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME TO REASON YOUR CHOICES OUT. YOU DON’T THINK ABOUT MORALS. EVERYTHING HAPPENS WITHIN A SPLIT SECOND. YOU DO IT, OR YOU DON’T DO IT. The (almost) in the first sentence is due to your choice for dilemma 6. I absolutely DO NOT agree with that reasoning. It is CRAPPY. Other than that, I agree with all of the other answers you gave. Although for some dilemmas, I have very different reasonings for them.
I think it’s pretty much impossible to know what you’ll do in any situation until you’re actually in it. We all know what we think we’d do, but you can’t really know.
First a bit of praise/flame.
Seymour – Congratulations. Trying to take the moral high-ground while showing no moral fibre, quite a good trick, are you in politics?
Shroom – At last, someone who understands the game, there are NO other options.
(But you don’t get away scott free. 1st line of the “Concentration camp” scenario. WHAT? The inmates were guilty?)
Too many good/bad posts to comment on everything but anyone who has made the effort to think & reply deserves to be praised.
Now it’s my turn to incur the wrath of the readers.
Concentration camp
Isn’t this the same as “Drug bust”? The boy made a decision (escape/smuggle) that had a consequence (hang/jail).
Anyway, as the father you would not be saving an innocent man, you would be creating a guilty one by murdering your son. Treat the guard with contempt, ignore him & his actions, by joining in you accept some of the guards guilt.
The accident
The wife is having an affair, the lover is not (Yeah, yeah, he could be cheating on his wife, whatever.) Emergency workers are trained how to prioritise, this should be the deciding factor.
Spam filtering
Ignore it. Your moral commitment is to your promise of confidentiality. Why try & force your views onto others, your friend may suspect the affair but is happy to ignore it as long as it’s discreet.
The neighbour (Correct spelling, I’m English)
So there’s enough evidence to convict him already, will your testimony make any difference to that? The law has to prove guilt “Beyond reasonable doubt” ALL the evidence should be made available for the court to make a decision.
(Here’s a thought, there’s enough evidence to convict even though you know he can’t have killed his wife. Could the “Evidence” provided by your daughter also leave room for the mans innocence?)
Pregnant woman
Is it right to sacrifice an innocent person to save others?
On this occasion I agree with Shroom (I think) the only person who can decide is the woman herself.
Nieces & daughters
Save the niece first then go back for the daughter she may still be alive, the other way round is condemning your niece to certain death.
Hit & run
Say what you see. You may have hit the person or it could have been the kerb. You were wrong to take your concentration from the road but that doesn’t make you automatically guilty of everything else that occurred.
Let the courts make the decision as to guilt.
P.s Did the bloke jump out in front of the car suicide style?
Drug bust
The officer asked a question, answer it. He wasn’t asking who owned the drugs, who was guilty, who should go to jail he asked who the bag belonged to.
The mad bomber
I don’t think torture is justifiable especially on innocent people so carving up the wife is out.
Torture against someone with mental health problems? (You said he was a “Madman”) Isn’t “Not guilty through insanity” an absolute defence.
Get someone to pretend to be a lawyer, to protect his “Fifth” rights the “lawyer” would need to know the facts. Any confession would be inadmissable in court but the bombs will be found.
(Shroom – I think this falls within the rules, doesn’t it? Looks like I just promoted you to moderator)
Lifeboat
Just realised this question is the hardest simply by having me involved in the life/death decision does that show me up as a coward? Hippocrite? Both?
Do I owe the others anything? Do I condemn them to CERTAIN death by swapping or just increase their risk?
If we were being chased by lions should I stay with the slowest person & help them along to increase their chance of survival (We MAY reach the safety of the trees)?
Well, that’s a darn sight more than 30 seconds gone by so I’d best take my turn at bailing.
Not very philosophical answers but they feel right. I’m a moral person so any decision I make must be moral.
Of course what I would ACTUALLY do is run, fight, kill, steal, lie, do anything to save my kids, partner, self, extended family, friends, others (In that order) & ***** anyone/anything that gets in my way!
P.s I’ve got a book “100 Moral Dilemas” I stole it! Pick the bones out of that!
10. What I would WANT to do: I would look to see if he was ready to be hanged… If the look in his eye says “I’m ready to take responsibility,” I’d pull the chair… Otherwise, I’d take the place of him.
What I would ACTUALLY do: I’d probably take to long trying to think of what to do, ending in (most likely) both our demise.
9. What I would WANT to do: I’d save my wife first. When they get better, we can try to work out our marraige. After I help her, I’d do all that I could for the partner.
What I would ACTUALLY do: After I had seen them and finally understood that she was having an affair… I’d probably stand there in shock, unable to move or think muchless save two people.
8. What I would WANT to do: I would not say specifically that his wife was having an affair, but I would drop subtle hints. Besides, THEIR marraige isn’t MY problem.
What I would ACTUALLY do: If we are good friends, I’d tell him durring an outing to lunch or something. But if we were just acquaintances, I wouldn’t say anything. Besides, THEIR marraige isn’t MY problem.
7. What I would WANT to do: I would tell him the “Alibi… confess” thing.
What I would ACTUALLY do: Move somewhere else and try to forget the whole thing.
6. (Well, that certainly is a strange situation…)
What I would WANT to do: Light the dynomite (even though the cave would become pretty messy and her insides would end up being washed to shore.)
What I would ACTUALLY do: Get some one else to light the dynomite… Pretty much the same outcome.
5. What I would WANT to do: Use my superhuman stregnth to save both!
What I would ACTUALLY do: Frantically save my child then check if the niece is alive.
4. What I would WANT to do: I’d take the blame. After all, it was an accident.
What I would ACTUALLY do: Same.
3. I’m not touching this one with a sixty foot pole.
2. What I would WANT to do: Torture the bastard and save people!
What I would ACTUALLY do: Why on earth would I be working for the gov’t?!?!
1. What I would WANT to do: ***** those people! I’m getting out of here!
What I would ACTUALLY do: Stay. No guarantee my friend would get out alive either.
9- id let both of the bastards die… what goes around comes around…. =-)
concerning the one with ur wife and her lover in an accident,its a no brainer.let the lover die and try to save ur wife.if ur wife survives-shes lost her lover and shes stuck with u. u can watch her writhe in pain for the rest of her life with the guilt of a)having had an affair and b)having killed her lover
Number 3 is by far the hardest choice to make.
I read a lot of comments above wich said that the son should take the blame, because it’s his fault and he deserves it. Well, it is his fault – but that doesn’t mean it’s right that he gets punished for a bit of *****!
I have no idea what I would do.
10-Hit the guard on the head and make a run for it with my son and others
9-I’m not the only friggin person on the job, someone else can save the partner while i save my wife
8-Confront the person, if they deny, go straight to my boss and say they are using business emails for pure pleasure.
7-First of all, I wouldn’t have moved after my daughter got raped, I would’ve beaten the ***** outta my neighbour.
But if I didn’t do that I probably would just stay quiet. Hey, the man can get away with rape, who’s to say he cant find a lawyer?
6-Do whatever it takes to get the pregnant lady (who is indeed a dumbass for getting stuck somewhere during her pregnancy) out of the place she is stuck in. If it goes in, it should come out right? Or ask the crazy idiot with the dynamite if he has any soap or liquid dishwasher so we can ease her out.
5-Get my wife to help me. Or if she can’t swim either, in which case i regret taking this trip with her, get a floaty large object, get both kids to hang on, and drag them to shore. Then yell myself hoarse at them for being so irresponsible.
4-Take the blame, then suicide. Pay for the dead guy’s life with mine, I couldn’t live with the fact I’d killed someone. ALl thoe years in jail would make me go crazy
3-Higher a lawyer for my kid. If we won the case for my son’s stupidity I’d force him to move out. No way am I having ***** around the house.
2-Torture that idiot until he speaks.
1-Smack the idiot who was lowering the boat, and then attempt to get back on the ship and gather materials for patching the boat up. Oh yea, and tell my friend on the other boat to tell my family I loved them.
Needless to say, these “Moral Dilemmas” were caused by some idiots. But seriously, this is all jsut written down. After watching so much television, with drastic situations like these, such as when faced with your wife cheating what would you do, it isn’t as dire as situation 9, but honestly, chances are seriously slim of you being a paramedic and finding your wife and her secret lover all smashed up.
1. This is the only one I can answer. I’d stay in the boat, and try to let my friend know that if he is rescued first, that we can’t last long.
Ok…
10: Pull out the chair as instructed, then kill the guard with the chair (or at least try).
9: Tell her you forgive her, then save her lover. She dies happy and her lover has to live with the guilt, you go on living knowing everyone got what they deserved; she was forgiven but paid with her life, her lover will live a life of guilt, and you are free from the betrayal.
8: Confront your friend’s wife’s lover, he KNOWS you read the email, the information does not leave the company, so you keep your job, and, knowing that he has been caught out, the lover is likely to change his ways.
7: Do not provide an alibi for him, he may be guilty of this crime, but he is guilty of the rape of your daughter, so he deserves to be punished, even if it is for the wrong crime.
6: Use the dynamite to blow everyone up. You are a team and should all go down together.
5: Save your neice and take the risk with your daughter, a risk is better than certain death.
4: Admit that you did it, you can’t let someone else suffer for your guilt.
3: Turn him in, he is guilty and the victim of his own foolhardiness, no one else should suffer for his guilt.
2: Torture the crap out of him, why should it matter if one scumbag suffers to save hundreds of innocent people, as for his wife, if she was aware of his crimes but stayed with him anyway, she is just as guilty and so is fair game for torture, if she was unaware, but torturing her is the only way to get the details from him, do it, but go easy and make sure she will suffer no lasting effects.
1: Stay put, you’re part of the group’s dilemma now and you shouldn’t leave them to save your own skin.
Of course some of these solutions would be harder in practise.
Ryan (140) Who? I missed something here.
JFrater
For all the comments of mine you have erased (Why, I don’t know)why should this pass?
JFrater
I’m serious. This is beyond ugly
Vera: I wasn’t aware of the comments here – I have removed them. When you register as a user you get a little link beside each comment to use for reporting abuse – a good way for me to keep track. Fortunately someone else saw your comment and told me I needed to investigate
10. pull out the chair, because he was dying of cancer anyways.
9. revive the man and go out to tea with him. kick your wife beforehand. sorry just isnt good enough.
8. kill the wifeand husbad. track dow he lver and kill him. serve the tim in jail. problem solved.
7. let him sit in jail, jacking off over an 8 year olds under developed body. sicko.
6. blow the ***** outof the pregant lady. she an cop it for being so stpid and leading them all into that predicament.
5. if theres a 50% chance of etting the daughter out second, then get the daughter out second. for *****s sake, you wouldnt even have that muc time to calculate that. *****ing idiots. just go with what your heart says. maybe call out for help. that would work. think of the possiblities noob.
4. how can you even be sure you hit the erson in the first place? all it said was you felt someting soldid. you probably glanced a telegraph pole as you drifted off he road, span in front of another car, the other car swerved and hit the person. the lady cops it.
3. point at a random balinese senior citizen. it could be funny.
2. yeah. because we are human and we jack off to hat kind of *****, and afterwards wipe the man sauce on animals. its normal.
1. goto the friends boat. when your drifting away from the sinkin lifeboat, make funny faces and call out taunts as you watch them struggle. hehe.
10. I would not kill my son. I would pretend to walk up to the chair but then I would grab the guard’s gun and shoot him and any other guards near me. Then I would shoot the rope to free my son and we all try to escape. I know it sounds like something from a movie and unlikely to work, but if it didn’t then I would die but it wouldn’t matter because I would probably die anyway.
9. I would help my wife and call for backup to help the man.
8. I would tell my friend but make him promise to not tell anyone how he found out.
7. He probably wouldn’t be alive to kill his wife but if he was I wouldn’t say anything unless I had any doubt that he raped her.
6. I would lask the pregnant woman what she wanted and decide based on her answer. If she said to kill her I would be less willing to because she was willing to sacrifice herself for us. If she started yelling for us to not kill her I probably would. Either way I wouldn’t want to be the one to light the dinemite.
5. I would drag them both sideways out of the rip tide. Everyone should know to not fight a rip tide but swim parralel to it. I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to drag both of them to the side and let them rest and then swim in on their own.
4. I would ask everyone around me what they saw and whoever they saw hit the person I would believe them even if it meant I was responsible.
3. I would say it is my son’s but that it is medical marijuanna. They wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at him whether or not he really had the symptoms of someone who needs it. They would probably take him to a hospital and while waiting for the results I would try to run from the hospital with him. P.S. How could he be dumb enough to bring weed on a plane?
2. I would torture him but at the same time have all of the cops searching for the bomb. If he doesn’t answer then I would pretend to torture his wife. If she doesn’t cooperate then she isn’t innocent so I’d actually torture. If I find the bomb and then he tells the judge that he was tortured, then me and all of the other officers would lie. It’s his and his wife’s word against the entire police force.
1. I would stay and help. Although I don’t see how I would figure out all of that math before we sank. Then I’d tell my friend to get help because there would probably be enough empty seats for all of us in other boats.
This is a very good list and I thought about it a lot. I think the hardest ones are Concentration Camp and Drug Bust (maybe because they both involve dangerous escapes and risking my son’s life.)
10. The son is going to die anyway so pull out the chair. Might as well make the best of a bad situation.
9. I’d be tempted to walk away and screw them both. But its simple; I owe this guy nothing and as long as there’s a chance to save my wife, she comes first.
8. Confront the friends wife and give her an ultimatum that either she tells him or you do. If she bites and tells him herself, you’re saved. If she calls you bluff then I guess you just have to think about #1, i.e. just keep your mouth shut and do your job.
7. I’d relish having the bastard rot in jail.
6. Numbers will decide it. If there are more than two of us stuck then I’ll use the dynamite. However, if I’m stuck with someone I love (child or spouse) then tough luck pregnant woman. If I love the pregnant woman then God help anyone trying to blow her up. Hopefully I’m not stuck with my kid while at the same time the pregnant woman is my wife.
5. This ones the toughest I think but I’d try save them both until things reach a point where it’s clear I can only save one or the other. In that case the daughter will come first.
4. This ones simple. I’d man up and take responsibility for what I did.
3. The son’s a dumb prick. But then what’s a man good for if not for protecting his family. I’d have to take the rap for the son.
2. Torture the bomber and the wife if necessary. The torture might not kill the wife, the bombs will certainly kill many. The good of the many outweighs that of the one in my book (as long as I’m not personally invested).
1. I’d jump off the boat. I don’t know these people and certainly do not owe them my life.
Why would you do this to me? D:
10. Rush the guard and try to kill him before you and your son are killed. Take as many out before you go.
9. Go help someone else let em both die they deserve it.
8. Send it and tell your friend
7. Only help him if your asked.
6. Light it
5. Your daughter
4. If you can live with the guilt then let them feel responsible
3. Your son’s, he is eighteen. He made the bed, he has to lay in it.
2. Torture him, let the others go.
1. Jump and swim you can always throw the weakest one on the new boat off to help the others.
THIS WEB SITE IS COOL THX FOR HELP WID MA HOMEWORK!!! xXxXx
10. I honestly don’t know what I would do. Probably kill my son… You know, I don’t actually know if I could stand doing that… Oh man I’m glad I’ll never be in that situation!!
9. I feel I’d have a duty to my husband and save him. Well, I’d hope to be able to save them both…
8. I would not tel them. (Knowing me I couldn’t help myself though…) Secrets always come out in the end anyway. And I’m sure that if my friend was a true friend they would understand if they knew I knew and didn’t tell them.
7. Honestly I wouldn’t do anything out of laziness. But having to choose,I would let the police know he was at the restaurant. If he did pay someone I’m sure the police would find out.
6 This is so sad… I don’t think I Can decide… I would want to save the others, but I honestly don’t know if I could bring myself to kill a pregnant women…
5. I would save my niece first. And tell my daughter to be strong and that I love her (Just in case… )
4. If I was careless enough to do this and it happened I wouldn’t let someone else take the blame for it.
3. I would tell them who’s it is.
2. Torture her.
1. I wouldn’t leave my boat.
I think the big question is not “what would you do in these situations?” but “would you actually act the way you just responded if the situation actually arose?”. We can come up with whatever answers we’d like, but would our strong moral convictions supercede conflicting survival instincts.
What is the cost of one’s life? Is one equal to another? Can you make that call? Do you have the right or competence to judge what makes a man more worthy to live?
Many things can change the answers one gives, such as their upbringing, religion, and mood. When asked whether they would save their mother, spouse, or child if they could only save one, a vast majority of Asian people respond with “mother”, because you can always have another child and another lover, but never another mother.
That being said, here are my answers:
10. If the Nazi wants to keep killing, let him. Don’t let him break your love because that would be the last thing he could do before he had you. Don’t kill your son.
9. I’m not sure of the EMT policies- I believe it would be to see who has the highest chance of living and save them. I think that, seeing as how your wife would die anyway, treating her and not him would kill him by negligence. Save him, then try to save her.
8. It’s actually a judgement call. Your friend may already know and may even approve of it! (Who knows, huh?) I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if the opportunity arose to help the path to knowledge a little, but in the end, keep it to yourself. (You could also “accidentally” forward the e-mail to your friend, but that would be difficult to prove as accidental.”
7. Again, you don’t know 100% this is the guy- could be someone who looked like him. I would tell the police.
6. Has anyone tried wetting her head/neck to see if it could be loosened? Maybe apply a cold pack. If she’s still stuck, then it’s the good of the many over the one/two.
5. I’d try to throw something to my daughter and get my neice. Still, I would tell her to be calm and save the neice first.
4. Since I wouldn’t know 100%, I would say, as mentioned above, that I’m not entirely sure it was me but could have been.
3. I would suspect it would be more probable for you to pool your resources and try to get him out of jail than him and your wife. This was *his* mistake, not your’s, and he is old enough to make those decisions.
2. Again, this assumes that he cares that much about his wife. Wouldn’t you have egg on your face if you tortured her and he didn’t care? Don’t torture her.
1. I don’t think I could put myself before so many people. I would stay in the boat, but then again there’s no guarantee that someone else wouldn’t.
10. i wouldnt push the chair, hes my child i wouldnt be able to live with myself.
9.i would save the man 1st because the wife as a slim chance of living.
8.i would keep my mouth shutt i have a family to provide for. plus karma always bites you in the a**
7.i would not tell the police he had it coming to him and he can rott in jail for the rest of his life for what he did to my daughter. and he probally paid somone plus that mans a sick bastard.
6. i guess i would use the dynamite because we would be saving 9 people instead of 2.
5.save the daughter 1st.
4.in reality you probally wont be stuck in jail so confess.
3.I dont agree with kelsi or whatever thats way up in the beggining of the comments.
i wouldnt be able to just tell the police that they were my sons because i would feel horrible. if he died and i would never be able to see him again. but i wouldnt take the blame for his mistakes. if i raised him right he would be a man and take the blame.
2.i would torture the mad man but not the wife. she did nothing wrong that we know off and its against the ammendments to torture but its also against the law to kill 100s cause you want too. so torture the crazy man butt leave the wife alone.
1. jump off and save myself. sorrry!!
10. Use hand to hand combat techniques to disarm the guard, then eliminate as many other guards using his gun. I sacrifice myself, but take out murderers with me.
9. Assuming both have equal odds of survival, save my wife.
8. Inform the adulteress of your information and request that she confess to her husband. If she does not, inform her husband.
7. Come clean with the police with all of your information.
6. If everyone is willing, let the pregnant women and her child live. If not, it depends upon how many people are trapped.
5. Save the niece, as the choice ensures one survivor, with a possibility of two.
4. Again, come clean with the police with all of my information.
3. I would come forward and take the blame. Once my wife and son were safely back in the US, say that it wasn’t me and request extradition.
2. The bomber is threatening 100s of innocent lives. It is known that the bomber is guilty. Any means are justified to save the 100s, so torture the bomber. Torturing the wife is not needed.
1. Remain on board to help the 9.
To start with I saw some extremely-ultra-super-duper smart comment guy. This is a dilemma! It sez there is no way out except two. Kill or beat the sadist guardian with chair or some far east tactics, buh! You’re not Bruce Lee or Arnold Civardagezer.
Meh, I’m an opportunist I love my life an’ I do every dirty rotten ways to save my life hehheh A’ma really bad guy >:D
10) I won’t kill my own son. If he will die, others must suffer!!!! The guardy will kill another people anyway.
9) Save whose chance to survive is higher. So, I save the man. No women no cry eh eh? I buy some cold beer and live the life.
8) Hehheh isn’t it simple? I simply don’t want to be fired. Let him to enlight himself. Not by me. I love my job.
7) A life-time prison should be too merciful. Assey nothin. After a moment I kidnap him and let all kinds of animals rape to him. Seconly I kidnap his relatives do them the same and let the bastardos rot in that room with crucified (Slow death crucification, means they will die because of thirst with high pain). >:D (Not kiddin, A’am serious)
6) Oh my Gosh what should I do? Hahahhahahhaahahhaha I’m laughing this question with my butt. Does this need an answer? Explode her.
5) This is a hard question. There is two ways: If the niece is my brother’s daughter I will save my niece. Iffff it’s my wife’s relative I don’t think, f*** off! I firstly save my own daughty.
4) Haha it’s easy peasy as number six. Guilt her, let her rot in the prison. I love myself, I have nothing to loose, am I an idiotic hydrotic magnetosphere resonans? No.
3) Har har har! Easy as a pie, mmmmm pie. I guilt her before she guilt herself and we will have a really good daddy sonny relationship. Didn’t you play Fallout 3? No womy no cry.
2) Torty everybody who is in the job. Because I will get a promotion because of this. Promoty=Money. If it’s not, I will get really angry and let him explode the city. I love firewurgs and slayation of innocent peepl.
1) Is this a questy? No it isn’t. Save my life. If I find a gun in that boat, fire at them so they won’t suffer. Or I changed my mind. Make a hand gesture to them and LET THEM SUFFER GREATLY!
I hope you didn’t find me evil, opportunist and sadistic as the questy 10 guardian. I’m a good person who always wants his profit. I hope I didn’t offensed any peepl. If I am, a’am terribly sorry as a pie, mmm warm apple pie.
Pardon me. Correctin somthin on numbry seven
7) A life-time prison should be too merciful. Assey he was innocent, I say everything to save him. Is it my forgiveness? No. After a moment I kidnap him and let all kinds of animals rape to him. Seconly I kidnap his relatives do them the same and let the bastardos rot in that room with crucified hooked with sittn stake(Very slow deathy thingy in Ottoman Empr, means they will die because of thirst with high pain). >:D (Not kiddin, A’am serious)
1.Ideally you should stay for the greater good but then again, honestly though I’m selfish and I would go, plus if you stayed you could’ve all died, but if you go, atleast one person has 100% chance of survival. 2.Interrogate the crap out of him, and pressure his wife but not to an extreme. 3. let the kid take the blame, he has a better chance to get out of it with both parents paying court costs..plus his dumb ass did it. 4.You did it, fess up. 5. You should save the niece and try to get your daughter second since she has 50%, but people are selfish so they’d prob. save thier own..this reminds me of “The Good Son” 6.Who cares if she’s pregnant, greater good.7.Let his ass burn, rape victims are only in jail for a couple years if your lucky…***** him back. 8.I’d tell my friend, you can get another job, he can get another wife..plus they could never trace it back to you legally. 9.Save the Wife! You love her! Its in the marriage contract! That other guy was *****ing her, he’s a bastard. 10.You can only control your actions, if you want to kill your own son and can live with it, go ahead, I wouldn’t.
9)If your going to take up the “professional” thing to do, it just got unprofessional when you discovered it was your wife, and became personal…so you can’t act professional. You don’t just stop loving the person you married in an instant..if you truely love her you will save her. If your only letting her die because of cheating, then you never loved her. Switch your wife to your wife who’s done nothing or your child, and see what response you give.
10. Ideally, I would try to kill the officer and make an escape with everyone I could. Realistically, I would know that there is no hope for my son and, even if he could live, it would be a miserable existence. I would take the chair to spare him that.
9. I would save whichever one had the highest chance of living and try my best afterward to save the other. I would make sure my HUSBAND knows that, if he is the most likely to die, I didn’t deny him medical attention because I wanted revenge, but because he had practically no chance of surviving. It would not be my job to play god and decide that the man I love should get the better chance to recover, especially if he’ll probably die.
8. I would do nothing. My friend could not hold me accountable for something that could have endangered my job. If he/she were to ask me directly, I would probably say that I knew, but I wouldn’t reveal how.
7. In this case, I would give him the alibi. Yes, he took something precious from me, but two wrongs never make a right. It’s also possible that my generosity could evoke guilt in him, enough that he might confess for what he had done… Maybe the guilt would be punishment enough.
6. In dilemmas involving “one person or all of them,” I tend to decide based on age. If most of the people stuck were young, and there were many of them, then yes, it would be necessary to kill the woman. However, in this case, it doesn’t even seem that the woman herself can be saved, so she and her child will die anyway. Sadly, the woman will have to die to give other people the chance at life.
5. It was the responsibility of the girls to not go into the water, so I would go with my instinct and save my daughter. That may not sound like logic, but it is to me.
4. Are you kidding me? That’s just selfishness versus self-sacrifice. Yes, there’s my family to consider (if I have one) but it was my fault, my carelessness. This is not a moral dilemma: I would turn myself in without question.
3. This is difficult simply because of right and wrong: the person who made the mistake should take the blame. However, if my HUSBAND (why are all these questions geared toward men?) was about to claim it, if he was the most capable of supporting the family alone, I would, of course, step forward instead.
2. It is justifiable to torture the bomber. The reason the law is in place is, really, to prevent torture from being used in instances where it is not necessary or not justifiable (because that is such a fuzzy line for sadists.) In this case, he is to blame for the possible death of hundreds of people, and he deserves such a punishment if it is needed to avoid those deaths. His wife, unless a co-conspirator, cannot be tortured with any justification.
1. If I alert anyone else of the boat, there will be a clamor about who gets to live and likely it will waste time. If everyone is busy deciding who gets to live, we will probably all sink, or one person will miss the oportunity for rescue. It’s better to save one life, my own, than to take a chance on how gracious the other people will be in a desperate situation.
Not a great list. Most have fairly basic answers based on self versus group or logically justifable answers. The mad bomber is probably the best. However reviewing some of the comments it’s surprising how different people really are and how inconsistent they can be. e.g. Anna (no 157) says for number 7 that two wrongs dont make a right but then says for number 2 you should torture the bomber! (Sorry for picking this out Anna but it really struck me as interesting). For what it’s worth here are my answers.
10. Kick the chair. Your son will die whatever you do and you are saving someone else – there is no dilemma
9. The wife/lover bit is just trapping. It’s basically a case of helping one person ensures the other dies. You apply logic to help the one most likely to survive regardless of the affiar etc (unless your Will Smith in I Robot of course!)
Again no major dilemma involved.
8. Probably the most lame. Even if it didn’t involve your job who are you to screw with someone else’s marriage! You say nothing and don’t feel bad about it.
7. Getting a bit better but fairly easy to justify to yourself saying nothing.
6. Again a bit better but you don’t use the dynamite. You believe something else will happen (rescue etc) until it’s too late.
5. Again too easy with no real dilemma – you rescue the niece which means both may survive.
4. Again no real dilemma. You were bent down for the CD and didn’t see what happened – the women may be right so you say nothing.
3. Again no real dilemma- if the boy is that stupid he takes his punishment – he needs to learn.
2. The only one that deserves the title ‘top 10′ and a classic does the ends justify the means. The classic answer is of course No, you don’t torture people, you may get the answer another way.
1. Lame, lame, lame. You give someone 5 hours they will believe they can survive. You stick with the boat.
What a great site. My first visit… My first comments figured may as well get the hard one out of the way.
10- do not pull out the chair, they will probably kill you along with the others anyway.
9-save your wife if she has the better chance of returning to a normal life, blood loss will probably brain damage him, (besides you want her alive so you can kill her)
8-send an an anonomous to the friend that his wife has admitted to someone he knows that she is having an affair. disclose no details from her message.
7-give the aliby, with a sketchy past he may have many more suspected crimes and will likely be investigated anyway
6-use the dynomite, if I were the preg woman I would not be able to live knowing many people died when it could have been just one and a fetus
5-save the neice first, then daughter, best chance for both to survive. daughter is probably aware neice in more trouble and if you save her when you could have saved both, she nor you will forgive yourself
4-Tell the truth… one of the biggest problems in todays worl is people not taking responsability for their own actions. If you could let someone else take you dues than you probably should be put away before it happens for real
3-tell them it is your son’s and hope he learns to become a responsable adult when he’s done facing his consequences, again accountability, your wife does him no favor by trying to lie, when they don’t find womens things in the bag it will be either you or him. She is only implicating all of you at that point.
2-if someone has set up that kind of circumstance they don’t care much about anyones lives, so torturing him or his wife would be pointless. evacuate best as possibe and execute the bomber
1-if it was a cruise ship the chances of rescue within just a few hours is very high, especially when they disappear from tracking stations. Stay and help, give everyone the best chance.
10. The noose is already on his neck. He’s going to die regardless. I’m going to die regardless. So is the person I would supposedly be saving. A Concentration camp is a death camp, and they intent on eventually murdering everyone there. My actions here would not have an effect. It’s just a cruel mind game, and I would refuse to play. They can kill your body, don’t let them take your soul.
I mean yeah, I could answer, “I would attack the guard, save my son, and lead a massive breakout”, but get real.
9. If tending to the man first means my wife will “definitley die” but tending to my wife first means that he will bleed to death, then it’s obvious. I tend to my wife first.
8. I do nothing, mind my own business, obeying the rules.
7. Well I’m not sure am I? I’m not sure he raped my daughter, I’m not sure he had anything to do with his wife’s death. Am I really sure I it was him in the restaurant. Time of death is not an exact science, and if he is truly innocent, chances are, he won’t be convicted.
6. This is just ridiculous. A pregnant woman leading the group? A hole in the cave just her size? And somebody brought dynamite?
5. Niece, then daughter. Try to save both.
4. What I WOULD do, and this is not right, is let the woman take the fall for it. If I was eventually found out to be the real culprit, I would insist that I didn’t know, and that the woman’s belief that she did it convinced me.
3. He’s 18, and he is the guilty one. I would not interfere if he gets in trouble, and I would not interfere if my wife takes the fall. They’re both adults and capable of personal responsibility, so I would not say a thing.
2. Hurting one guilty man, or even one innocent woman, to save the lives of thousands is a clear choice to me. Use the torture.
1. Stay in the boat I’m in.
10. kamakazie on the guard; better then having guilt of killing the man or my son.
9. go into sudden deep medatation probably, and lose control of the situation, but if i could have chosen, i would have chosen the man.
8. my job is first, i signed a contract.
7. i would still feel guilty, I’d have to give an alibi, or go into deep depression, i killed an ant once, and didn’t eat meat for 2 weeks.
6. No way, i would have felt guilty like hell, i just killed a baby. would try to shove her out and die trying.
5. Try to save both and die trying, rather die trying then living guilty.
4. tell the cops it was me, the woman will testify against herself, hopefully we’d go to court and I she would proveme guilty of not killing the guy.
3. really guys? you’d kill your son for taking drugs? your fault your a bad parent. your fault for not checking his bag. your fault for not wearing a condom. I’d take the blame, hopefully my son would stand up, if he didn’t i’d curse him though. Didn’t he say he was a good kid?
2. no one’s read tom clancy? there’s evidence less ways too torture. anyway if the wife knows about the bombing, and refuses to tell us anything, is she really innocent? she just obstructed justice.
1. try to survive and die trying, i don’t like living with guilt.
lol this is copypasta isn’t it?
Wouldn’t the first one be better (worse?) if the guard was threatening to kill you?
Well I doubt i’d be able to answer these they way i am about to if I was really in these situation but since I doubt i’ll ever be, i’ll take a crack at them.
10. Either way the blood is on my hands it seems. Since my son is going to die anyway,i’d expect him to understand. Even if there is no guarantee that the innocent will live if you pull the chair,it is guaranteed that said innocent will die if you refuse and so will the son. All those saying that the blood will be on the guards hands are pretty much right but I think some blame should go to the son,since he is the reason you have to choose. I’m not upping the body count because my son is lousy at escaping. Since he dies anyway, I am removing the chair.
9.Since there is a high chance my wife will die any way,I will save the man and if she is dead by then…i’d be heart broken but it’s far better than ending up saving neither. Sorry wife, I choose the lover.
8.Pretty easy one. My buddy isn’t going to take care of me when I end up on the street for violating company policy. It’s not my business. I stay out of it.
7.This one is not a dilemma because I don’t really have that choice. It’s not like we were alone in the resturant. Someone else would probably have said something not knowing his history. However if no one did,I would be keeping mum. He deserves to rot. I’d consider it vindication.
6.Women usually expand outward when they are pregnant.But thats a non issue. Why would a woman who is so far along be with us anyway? And unless this woman is an amazon or something,how could she be plugging the hole? I’m I to believe that we have enough space to ignite dynamite and get far enough away that it would only harm her and ensure our safetly but be cant just have her move her pregnant ass out the way and have her come out last? If this scenario made sense i’d blast her. Sorry lady but you would have died anyway (How would she have gotten out of this cave? Sure she’d be able to survive the tides and such but who says rescue is coming? Besides if the group had choosen to drown I would have definatley pulled her down with me.
5. It’s kind of funny that i’d never have to make this descion. I cant swim. They’d both end up dead. My daughter is the stronger swimmer. I would aid the niece first. Common sense. But I dont see why i’d need to swim one all the way back before getting the other. Why wouldn’t I be able to physically save them both?
4.I’d admit that it was me only because if i didn’t i’m sure someone else would have saw it and told on me. Besides,what if they weren’t dead? It only says that they look pretty bad off and you think they are dead but you cant possibly know that unless you check which you did not.
3.My son would not cause my wife to be arrested under no conditions. Sorry skip,should’ve known better. He takes his medicine.
2.legally i’d say no. But since it is established that he definately planted these things and they definately will kill people,I would torture him. His wife too. Not that it would be likely to work. The guy is willing to kill millions,do you really think he’ll be soft for his wife? I refuse to believe she would be completely innocent. Even if she was innocent,she’d get it too. So would anyone else who we think that torturing them would get him to speak.The lives saved outweighs the torture. Not much of a dilemma. Now if it was left ambigous as to whether or not he was responsible…I’d still do it. Better be safe than sorry.
1.This scenario is kind of silly. Am I to believe that none of the members of my sinking ship would attempt to rush the boat? Am I to believe that the others in the fixed boat would really let me on even though they couldn’t save anyone else. If I can get onto the other boat,I would. Self persevation and all that.
Im doing a post on concentration camp.Well i know it would be hard but i would pull the chair from under my son.But afterwards i would kill myself because i would have felt so bad for doing that to my son.But i could not just have the guard kill my son and another innocent person it just wouldnt be right but i would feel terrible about it period.
Lydia: I do NOT agree with your number 2. The innocent woman cannot be blamed for her husbands crimes; what are the chances that she knew her husband was mad when they married? People can change in the most unexpected ways, she shouldn’t have to suffer for him.
one thing i have noticed about alot of peoples answers to number 3 is that letting your own son hang is insane. As a parent it is your job to protect your own offspring to the fullest extent. Yuor son could be sent to prison for life or executed and you would let him die. I see all you asses that would let him take the fall as cowards. Weed never hurt anyone. By letting your child die because of some weed makes you a jackass. And yes in turn you may die in his place, but THAT IS YOUR JOB AS A PARENT.
pregnant women should not be in caves to begin with so that prob wont happen.
EMT’s dont arrive to accidents without a partner. As a firefighter myself there will always be more help on a scene. This situation wont happen if you work as an emergency medical tech. If by chance it does, save the wife. screw the other guy.
With the niece and daughter, save both at the same time. the daughter is stronger in the water so have her hold around the neck and have her help kick to the niece and then to shore. Saving two 7 year old girls is easier then saving a grown man or even a grown woman. They dont weigh that much. Also bad parenting for letting them out of your sight near water alone. dumbass
With the rapist, tell cops hes that you saw him and let them go from there. and for the rapist kill him.
It’s interesting to me to see how many people respond to the first by saying they would never kill their son; but then in the end turn in the 18 year old son who is ‘in general, a good kid’ with possibly dire consequences. Drugs or no, in both situations they are your theoretical sons. The answers who said they’d seek legal council make the most sense.
10. I would let the guard kill my son to save innocent inmates.
9. I would save the man first. And then will quickly come back to save my wife.
8. I would call up my friend and inform him regarding the email.
7. I would call up police and inform that ex-neighbor is innocent.
6. Use the dynamite to kill the pregnant women.
5. I would save the niece first and would quickly come back to save my daughter.
4. I would admit my fault.
3. I would save my son by telling that the bag was mine.
2. I think it is fine (though not correct morally) to torture the mad bomber’s wife. Our ultimate aim should be to save more number of people.
1. I would stay back to continue pumping water out. My staying back might help all the people to survive for some more time.
10 – even if you save your son, he will probably get killed later on anyway. Better to let him die now than make him go through more suffering
9 – Save the man. If you love your wife, you would make it your priority to save what she loves.
8 – Tell the friend. If he is a true friend, and you are a true friend to him, you have to stay loyal. Quote “a true friend is a person who would take a bullet for you in a war”
7 – Tell the police. No matter how much you hate the person, no one should be punished for something they didn’t do. Also ask the police to investigate the rape earlier…maybe they can collect enough evidence to tie him to the rape?
6 – Blow her up. A small sacrifice considering how much more people would be saved.
5 – Save daughter. She is your daughter. You can’t love anyone more than your child. If you save the niece and your daughter drowns, then you will never be able to forgive yourself. If your niece drowns, you might not talk to your brother/sister/inlaw ever again, but at least you have a complete family.
4 – Admit to killing the person. As with number 7, no one should be punished for something they haven’t done.
3 – Say that the bag is mine. A parent must always sacrifice themselves for their child.
2 – Torture the bomber and the wife together. If it works, great. If he is truely mad and sadistic and still refuses to tell and the whole thing blows up, well, at least you died trying.
1 – I would go to the other boat. At least that way you have 100% survival chance, and the others are still left with some chance. (alternatively, why cant you go onto the otehr boat, and tell the others to hang on to the rim of the other boat as well? That way everyone will be saved)
10. Doesn’t matter what you do here, you have no control over any aspect of the situation. Given that reality, the most immediately appealing response is to attempt to take control by attacking the guard. However, I would probably just do nothing but play defense and use whatever life was left in me prevent the guard from killing anyone, especially my son (all the time throwing moral invective/appeals at him, ‘what if your mother was here?’, ‘if a good god exists, you’re going to hell!’, etc.).
9. Save my wife. I’m not so possessive or jealous as to hold it against my wife for ‘cheating’ on me in the first place (though I would think less of her for keeping it a secret). I don’t care that the man was her lover. He would be receiving no attention from me even if he was some random person in another car. If both end up dead and I go to the witness stand and they ask me “your wife had a 10% chance of survival and her lover had a 90% chance of survival, why did you choose to work on your wife?”, I’d say, “*****, go watch iRobot. I loved my wife and had nothing to with the accident. Leave my widowed ass alone.”
8. Tell the friend, but tell him not to tell you told him. Simple. Or just say, “man, I’ve got a hunch your wife is cheating. You should try and work on your relationship or something”. There are subtle ways out of that one.
7. As much as you may hate the man, the best thing to do here is to inform the police as accurately as possible. Speak truth to power. Then let them do their job, but not before mentioning the whole rape thing to them again.
Then get your daughter some damn therapy already.
6. Admittedly surrealistic scenario, but hey, what else are thought experiments for? I’d say, blow her up. It sucks, but everyone is equally innocent here and there are more lives to be saved by taking the action. But wait for the tide to come in and try to lubricate the blockage before lighting the fuse, please. Use the dynamite only at the last minute with no options remaining.
5. I like some other person’s suggestion of holding onto them both and calling for your spouses help while still afloat. But I would probably save my daughter first if that wasn’t an option. Again, both equally innocent/guilty, just who do I care about most? My daughter. MY GENES WILL LIVE TO SWIM ANOTHER DAY BWAHAHAHA!!!.
4. My bad. Here’s my license, won’t happen again.
3. Sorry sonny boy, you’re a dumb*****. I thought I raised you better than that, but since I didn’t, sucks for you. Zero tolerance drug laws may be retarded, but not as much as violating them in such an overt fashion.
2. Here’s what I wanna *****ing know: If you don’t know where the bombs are, how do you know there are any bombs at all? Whose word are you taking, the mad bomber’s?
But let’s say you can theoretically know there are bombs without knowing where they are – how do you know the torture will elicit the information? It depends largely on just what type of insane the mad bomber is. If he’s truly mad, he’ll never tell you. In either case, never torture the innocent wife. Anyone who advocates her “guilt by association” is mistaken at best and depraved at worst.
1. Abandon ship. Sorry. Two hours vs. five hours, who knows when rescue will arrive, I’m getting off the boat. I’m not going to risk my life just so all ten of us can experience the unbridled joy of our last 3 exhausted hours together.
ehh no comment. hard choices.
10. I’m not pulling the chair out from under my son. Let the other guy die.
9. Save my husband, the *****. I would do sod-all for the other person, I owe her nothing.
8. Don’t tell my friend about the email. Avoid them like the plague until he finds out, which he will eventually. I wouldn’t want to be on friendly terms with her, either. Assuming she’s not violent, I might tell her I know. And that maybe it’s time for her to let *him* know.
7. These are two separate crimes. I have no idea what the “evidence” might be that makes it look like he murdered his wife, but I would at least let the world know I saw him. If he’s going to go to jail, it should be for as rightful as reason as possible. I hadn’t even considered the possibility at first, but I like ben’s idea of blackmailing a confession out of him.
6. a) I refuse to believe there is *no* way to shove and push a soft, flexible human being out of a tight spot. b) Use the dynamite somewhere else. c) This is just like prisoner-ship-vs-civilian-ship dilemma on “Batman Begins”! Should anyone seriously get it into their head to use dynamite on a pregnant woman, take it and throw it into the rising water.
5. I’d go for my daughter first, although in the heat of things, I doubt that I wouldn’t have the energy to drag them *both* to shore.
4. Wait, why does she think she hit him? All I know is I hit something solid. For all I know, it could have been an already-dead body.
3. Idiotic retard. I would probably be frozen speechless, and if he (my husband in this case) spoke up first, I’d let him take the rap because he’s older and (hopefully) stronger, and might be able to handle prison better. If he doesn’t and for some reason my cornball son actually speaks up first, I’d let him go to jail and call the American embassy and beg for help. I would be horrible at lying in this situation, I doubt anyone would believe me if I said it was mine. The Balinese might have a zero-tolerance policy but I don’t honestly think they’d execute someone over *weed*.
2. This question has the most outrageous answers of all. WTF is wrong with you sick arsebags for thinking it’s ok to torture a guy’s family. Nope, that wasn’t a question. Torturing innocent people? Seriously? Are you still so damn medieval? Are you also the kind of people who take responsibility for the wrongdoings of all those close to you? I bet not. (Especially judging from the answers to the last question, you bloody insane hypocrites. Thank God that most of you who answered “torrtur the wiffe!!!” are probably too dimwitted or unmotivated to get elected to public office and hopefully civil service wouldn’t let you in the door. That’s saying quite a bit considering our last Administration.) Also, lydia: if that were true, everyone in the world would also instantly know when their spouse was cheating on them just by, I dunno, looking them in the eye. Obviously they do not. Please take your lack of ability to reason elsewhere.
As for the guy himself, I’ll be totally honest. Ethically I think torture is reprehensible. Personally I would probably snap in the heat of the moment and haul off and hit him. Hopefully only once, before my colleagues dragged me away.
People have been dealing with this question since the beginning of time. We have learned to find ways around it by now obviously, so I hardly see why this would even be a dilemma anymore. If it is, then 1) you are a caveman without a spark of creative ingenuity at all or b) not in a country with easy access to sodium pentothal (look it up).
And your main focus should be evacuating the hell out of those areas where you think the bombs are.
1. Giant cruise ship? Probably has like about a thousand and one other lifeboats right? Tell the others to paddle to the other boat ’til they go mad. Get on the other one. Repeat process until all on the failing lifeboat have found new homes. People desperate to survive will do whatever the can, they’ll do whatever they can against the current. And I bet the friend’s lifeboat won’t *totally* sink just because more than one person were added to it. In fact, I’d place a pretty large wager on it, evidence coming from here: the first problem on http://www.friesian.com/valley/dilemmas.htm, another set of moral dilemmas. This is hardly a question.
(These answers brought to you by the general theme of “The Highest Good is Physical and Psychological Self-Preservation, Extending Outward to Those Closest to You”.)
Also, GrantYim: no it is not offensive to be Chinese. Straighten up, walk tall, etc. etc.
10. i wouldent pull the cair
9. save my wife
8. i wouldent tell my friend but i would try to make him notise
7. i would not tel the police
6. use the dynamite
5. ofc i would save my doughter i think every one would do that
4. tell the police
3. i DONT know :S
2. i would tortture him
1. i would stay in the boat
10. i would not pull the chair
9. i’d work on the man
8. i’d tell my friend
7. i’d say it was the former neighbour
6. use the dynamite
5. i really don’t know about this one
4. tell the police
3. i don’t know about this one either
2. i would use torture
1. stay on the boat
10. Thow must not kill. The deaths would be in the hands of someone else. You should not own responsibility for others actions. Maybe the guard won’t pull the chair out/kill your son. The future is unknown. – easy.
9. The accident. Save your wife man. Then you can give her ***** for being unloyal. Pretend you forgive her then drop her like a tonne of bricks. She deserves that at least ah! – easy.
8. These woman are bad are they not. Tell your mate and get a new job or black mail the woman to get money, then tell your mate get a new job and pay the legal fine with the blackmail money. After all you’re breaking rules already aren’t you. Yep!
7. Ah David Bain all over again. You are making many assumption if you are absolute that he raped your daughhter and believe he murdered his wife. What if…just what if…he IS innocent. You could hold onto resentment for ever and not prove either way or you could move, deal with what is current in your life, help your daughter recover (Chasing him will make it worse) and let the Police with all their expertise deal with it. Of course tell the Police what you know. My belief look after you and your daughter move forward to achieve the best results for the rest of your lives.
6. Being a caver I would not use the dynamite. I would be carrying a knife and there are certainly more options available. C section perhaps, then the lady would be unstuck. Anyone know how to do one of these? Cut her up. Babies move inside the womb. Perhaps… Pull and pull and pull until her leg breaks (That was one I encountered). Don’t panic. Get a better Cave guide … yeesh! Patience. The water will help lubricate and just maybe thae tide coming in will actually help. But don’t blow her up and close the cave off completely by blowing the cave to pieces. You gotta be an expert to minimise damage ah!
5. To be or not to be – that is the question. Hold on to them both. Tread water for a while. Let the rip take you out to a point where the rip stops. Swim around it back to shore. Or wait for a while to see if other fanily will come to your help, yell for help. If no-one comes then and only then make a decision. Save your daughter. You did not cause the incident but you could have avoided it.
4. Own up. Easy. You are to blame. Give the info to the Police and it’s no longer your decision anyway. You don’t choose who goes to kail. But come on. Own up. You’re an idiot so may as well get out of the way of the public by being locked up.
3. Come on people. This is a bit silly. The wife claiming the son’s bag as her own. Wouldn’t that be a bit obvious. We don’t have enough information. ie: What size is dad compared to the son. How old is the dad compared to the son. What is in the bag other than maj. ie: If mum claims mens clothes as her oiwn then it would be obvious she would be lying and then would be arrested as an accomplice. If dad claims it as his and he is a fatty and son a skinny fella, or if dad is 70 years old and son is 25 then clothes styles would be obviuous and the Kings of Leon and Kanye West CD’s were not dads either.
Oh and come on Kelsi. Do you not realise that you are not turning your son in to the Police. You state he deserves punishment. Punishment in Bali is the firing squad you idiot. Does he deserve that? You gotta watch the news sometimes.
2. An unfortunate predicament. However torture is an unknown as to whether the information would be forthcoming. It is a future statement and no-one can predict the future. You would be as bad as the mad bomber if you tortured his innocent wife. Again you did not cause this. Torture the guy to death. Whoops! sorry about that. Oh well. Eye for an eye. It was worth a crack Nigel.
1. That’s a simple one. It appears that there are 19 people. 9 in one boat, 9 in another and you. Hop in the good boat. Come around to the other boat and rotate the people to ensure there are fresh hands. That way you’ll keep the boat afloat the longest possible. You could also consider rigging the two life boats together. There are always options available. Not always the ones presented to you. Think people think.
as far as number 7 goes, I don’t think it should have even made it as far as the proposed predicament. If I had a daughter and I knew the person who raped her was not going to be convicted I would straight out kill the man without hesitation. I think that most people with a sense of justice and honor would do that same thing. If not murder than exact due justice one way or another on the man.
10 – Tell the guard to sod off. Realistically, you’re all going to die anyway, so getting shot and having yourself and your son a nice quick death is really the best option.
9 – I would get my wife out. I don’t care if she cheated and I don’t care if it’s not fair and I lose my job – that’s the woman I love and she is what matters to me in the situation.
8 – I would not say anything about the affair. Nature will run its course with the cheating wife. She will be discovered somehow. I couldn’t risk my whole (young) family’s welfare for the sake of a relationship involving only two people.
7 – Of course, I would let the cops know that the neighbour was at the restaurant when his wife was being killed. That piece of information may not even exculpate him from the crime, as he may have paid someone else to do it (as mentioned in the question) but I would not want to risk the outcome of him NOT being the killer and the REAL killer being set free because I wanted revenge for my daughter’s rape. But if he was cleared of his wife’s murder and went back to normal life, I would then find him and kill him, hostel-style.
6 – In the case of the pregnant woman, everyone dies but her. There is no way anyone would seriously blow her up with such little time to think about it. Also there would be too many opinions getting in the way to actually reach a decision. She lives, they die. I know I couldn’t do it.
5 – I would rescue my niece first, while yelling out to my daughter to hold on til I come back. They are both family, they are both dear to me, but my neice is more in need. I am certain my daughter will hang on if I encourage her and talk her through it while I am rescuing my niece.
4 – I would take responsibility.. after all, I DID it. No-brainer.
3 – My son is only young and he is my responsibility, so I will step forward. I would take the place of my wife or child in prison, especially when there is risk of torture or death.
2 – Torture the bomber’s wife. They are married and she will know what he is doing, so she is already an accessory to the fact for knowing about a planned crime and not reporting it. Therefore she is not innocent. She will most likely give up information before they kill her, so she keeps her life anyway.
1 – I stay in the lifeboat with the hole in it. Not one of the other 9 people bailed on ME, so why should I let them down? My life is not worth the lives of 9 others. Who knows, we might still be afloat when the rescue boat comes.
Understand these answers to be what I hope is true of me.
1. I stay in the boat and pray during my rest.
2. The bombers wife is innocent in this situation, torture him, but not her…
3. I step forward and say “I wasn’t going to smoke or sell it, think of it as a souvenir, please throw it away.”
4. Hug the lady, explain to her that you did it and take responsibility.
5. Niece than daughter probably, especially if the niece is not-yet-Christian and the daughter is Christian.
6. Pull the pregnant woman back in (not push her out), and send everyone out, then pull her back out and hold her head outside the cave so she can breathe.
7. Honesty, hopefully he will get caught for raping my daughter… But two wrongs don’t make a morally-acceptable.
8. I would talk to my employers, mentioning that I’ve read very sensitive and personal material. Asking for release, even at the expense of my job, to tell the truth, then quitting and releasing anyway if the employer says no.
9. Ooo. Tough, tough. I think I’d probably save the wife, but it might be better to save the man…
10. Call the guards bluff, who is totally innocent? Call him on that and I think he’ll just get mad enough to hang you with your son. Ya. I went there.
10. pull the chair if i could handle it
9. wife
8. easy tell my friend
7. the bastard will get what he deserves.
6. get the pregnant woman to OK it then use the dynamite
5. jeez that’s hard. think i’d leave it up to fate.
4. talk it out with her maybe split the blame since we both thought we did it
3. im surprised so many people would hurt their kids like that. I would say it was mine reflexively.
2. that’s what needs to be done. the constitution is based on morals not the other way around. If i would get arrested for doing the right thing then so be it.
1. Golden rule. do what you would want the others to do. stay with the old raft.