Example Of Ethical Dilemma

Ethical Dilemma

An ethical dilemma is a situation in which there is a choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. The term ethical means pertaining to, or dealing with morals or the principles of morality and the dilemma is a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives or simply any difficult or perplexing situation or problem. Most of us will encounter a fair share of these ethical dilemmas. To deal with these dilemmas, we have a decision making process that we go through. Now there are plenty of instances that can be considered an ethical dilemmas and even many more that might seem like they could be but are not. I will inform you on how to decipher

Of course you would want to save your best friend, but your best friend most likely wouldn't want you to choose him/ her over their mother because that's a typical reaction we have, it's in our human nature. On the other hand your best friend's mother will most likely not want you to pick her over her son or daughter. So you're faced with a situation with no one fix solution. No matter the outcome of your decision one or the other will be upset and distressed. There is not a concrete yes or no or option. This is a prime example of an ethical dilemma because there are two different options that will not and cannot resolve the problem at hand in an ethically acceptable manner. In essence you have two evils to choose from neither of which is an exceptional

On a first course module for decision making on umassd.edu I found a simple explanation to how humans go about with our thought process when we make a decision. There are seven steps, Identifying the decision, gathering information, identify alternatives, weighing the evidence, choosing among the alternatives, taking action, and lastly reviewing your decision. This is a process that we all will go through when making a choice when in an ethical dilemma. Realizing and being able to identify the problem at hand and what you're going to be deciding is key as knowing what you're are needing to choose from is important. As with my first example with the best friend and mother ethical dilemma. You know who you're choosing from. Next you gather information or do a self assessment of the situation and identify if there are and alternatives. You might want to save your best friend but there might be a way that you can save him and have a good chance at saving his mother too. Go through each decision and weigh the emotional burden on not only you but anyone that could be affected and then choose. It in our human nature to think about things or action that we did so the last step is reviewing and take what you can and applying it to succeeding decisions. This is a straightforward process that is natural for us humans because we have strong emotion tendencies