TABLE 1.

Example of Reasoned and Personal Moral Dilemmas¹⁴

Reasoned moral dilemmas included the following:

1. Standard Trolley: Imagine that you are at the wheel of a runaway trolley quickly approaching a fork in the tracks. On the tracks going to the left is a group of five railway workmen. On the tracks going to the right is a single railway workman. If you do nothing, the trolley will proceed to the left, causing the deaths of the five workmen. The only way to avoid the deaths of these workmen is to hit a switch on your dashboard that will cause the trolley to proceed to the right, causing the death of the single workman. Would you hit the switch in order to avoid the deaths of the five workmen?

2. Resume: You have a friend who has been trying to find a job for a long time but without success. He has a family to support and he is desperate. It occurs to him that he would be more likely to get a job if he just had a more impressive resume. He decided to put some false information on his resume in order to make it more impressive. By doing this he ultimately got a job, beating out several other more qualified candidates. Was it ok for your friend to put false information on his resume in order to help him get the job?

3. Taxes: You are the owner of a small business worried about surviving, making ends meet, and paying your taxes. It occurs to you that you can lower your taxes by pretending that some of your personal expenses are business expenses. For example, you could pretend that the stereo in your home is being used in your business office or that your dinners out with your wife are dinners with clients. Is it ok for you to report personal expenses as business expenses in order to survive and make ends meet?

4. Standard Fumes: You are the night watchman in a hospital. There is an accident and deadly fumes in the ventilation system are traveling to the hospital rooms. In one room there are three patients. In another room there is a single man. If you do nothing the fumes will go into the room with the three patients and kill them. The only way to avoid this is to hit a switch that will reroute the fumes into the other room with the single man, killing him instead. Is it appropriate for you to hit the switch in order to avoid the deaths of the three patients?

5. Lost Wallet: You are walking down the street when you come across a wallet lying on the ground. You open the wallet and find that it contains several hundred dollars in cash. From the credit cards and other items in the wallet, it’s clear that it belongs to a very wealthy man. You, on the other hand, are very poor and need money. You consider sending the wallet back to the owner without the money, keeping the money for yourself. Would you keep the money you found in the rich man’s wallet?

Personal moral dilemmas included the following:

1. Footbridge: Imagine that a runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workment who will be killed if the trolley keeps going. You are on a footbridge over the tracks in between the approaching trolley and the five workmen. Next to you on this footbridge is a stranger who happens to be very large. The only way to save the lives of the five workmen is to push this stranger off the bridge and onto the tracks below where his large body will stop the trolley. The stranger will die if you do this, but the five workmen will be saved. Would you to push the stranger onto the tracks in order to save the five workmen?

2. Transplant: You are a doctor. You have five patients, each of whom is about to die due to a failing organ of some kind. You have another patient, a young man who is healthy. The only way that you can save the lives of the first five patients is to transplant five of this young man’s organs (against his will) into the bodies of the other five patients. If you do this, the young man will die, but the other five patients will live. The families and staff beg you to do this. Would you refuse their requests to do the transplants that would save five of your patients?

3. Smother for dollars: You are in the hospital visiting a sick friend. A young man sitting next to you is visiting his very sick father who has only a week to live. He tells you that his father has a large life insurance policy that runs out at midnight. If his father dies before midnight, this young man gets millions of dollars. The money would mean a great deal to him and he sees no value in his father’s suffering for a few more days. He offers you a million dollars to go up to his father’s room and smother his father with a pillow. Would you to smother this man’s father in order to get money for yourself and this young man?

4. Crying Baby: Enemy soldiers have taken over your village. They have orders to kill everyone. You have hidden in the basement of a large house along with other people. Outside you hear the voices of soldiers who have come to search the house. Your baby begins to cry loudly. You cover his mouth to block the sound. If you remove your hand from his mouth the soldiers will hear his crying and will kill you, your baby, and the other people hiding in the basement. To save yourself and the others you must smother your child to death. Would you smother your child in order to save yourself and the other people?

5. Modified Lifeboat: You are on a cruise ship when there is a fire on board and the ship has to be abandoned. Unfortunately, the lifeboat that you get in has too many people and may sink. Your lifeboat is beginning to fill with water. If nothing is done your lifeboat will sink before the rescue boat arrives and everyone may die. However, there is a seriously injured person in the lifeboat. The other passengers ask you to help them throw that person overboard so that the lifeboat will not sink. Would you refuse to help the others throw this person overboard in order to save as many passengers as possible?

Mendez MF. CNS Spectr. Vol 14, No 11. 2009.