Week 8 lecture continued with Mr. Jaime with the topic of “Ethical Dilemma”. In the first place, we were given a situation with the main question: “Would you be able to make a decision to kill other human beings?” The given situation says that there are 10 children playing in the operational track and another child in disused track. When the train is coming, and I have the choice where I could decide to change the railway in order to make the train heading to the disused track. So that 10 children who are playing in the operational track will be saved and that child who is playing in disused track will be killed. When I was asked that question of which choice I would make, I choose not to change the railway track.
It is not because I do not want other 10 children not to be saved. But, that one child who is playing in the disused track does not deserve to be killed. Because he is in the right part of choosing a place to play by knowing the consequence and if the track is changed to the disused track, it is very dangerous for the passengers in the train as it is a disused track where the level of safety is at the lowest. In my perception, I think that the children in the operational track should be more careful in decision making as they have chosen the wrong part and they should be more aware of the consequences of that particular decision.
Moreover, there was one more situation where we had to choose one out of our three loved ones who are the captives of war. But, the point here is to choose the one who will be killed and if we do not choose, all three will be killed. I think this kind of situation is much more difficult rather than choosing the one who will be safe. If I am to choose, I would not be able to make the decision by thinking about those who are not chosen and also because of the one who is chosen not to be alive, but to die. That is where the phrase “ethical dilemma” comes in.
There were 7 types of ethical dilemma that we discussed during the lecture including dilemma of beneficence, autonomy, justice, fidelity, non-malfeasance, confidentiality and veracity. After all of the discussions that we have in class, I have realized that I could never be able to make a decision of killing other human beings. As life is full of tough decisions to make, ethical decision making is a skill that everybody should have.
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