hello Fela notes friends welcome back for another whiteboard discussion that is intended to help you in understanding the key concepts in philosophy in an incredibly easy way and so today we will address an important question in ethics what are moral dilemmas first of all let us define the term dilemma before we discuss the nature and dynamics of moral dilemmas a dilemma is a situation where a person is forced to choose between two or more conflicting options neither of which is acceptable as we can see the key here is that the person has choices to make that will all have results she does not want for example a town mayor faces a dilemma about how to protect and preserve a virgin forest and at the same time allow miners and loggers for economic development in the town it must be noted however that if a person is in a difficult situation but is not forced to choose between two or more options then that person is not in a dilemma the least that we can say is that that person is just experiencing a problematic or distressful situation this is the most logical thing to do for that person is to look for alternatives or solutions to address the problem when dilemmas involve human actions which have moral implications they are called ethical or moral dilemmas moral dilemmas therefore our situations where persons who are called moral agents and ethics are forced to choose between two or more conflicting options but neither of which resolves the situation in a morally acceptable manner let's consider this scenario as an example Lindsay is a deeply religious person hence she considers killing humans absolutely wrong unfortunately it is found out that Lindsay is having an ectopic pregnancy as is well-known an ectopic pregnancy is a type of pregnancy that occurs outside the uterus most commonly in the fallopian tubes in other words in a topic pregnancy the fetus does not develop in the uterus now if this happens the development of the fetus will definitely endanger the mother thus if Lindsay continues with her pregnancy then there is a big possibility that she will die according to experts the best way to save Lindsay's life is to abort the fetus which necessarily implies killing the fetus if we do not abort the fetus than Lindsey as well as the fetus will die in this example of a moral dilemma Lindsey is faced with two conflicting options namely either she resorts to abortion which will save her life but at the same time jeopardizes her moral integrity or does not resort to abortion but in dangers her life as well as the fetus indeed Lindsey is faced through the huge moral dilemma according to Karen Allen there are three conditions that must be present for situations to be considered moral dilemmas first the person or the agent of a moral action is obliged to make a decision about which course of action is best here the moral agent must choose the best option and act accordingly in lines' case she may opt to abort the fetus is the best course of action second there must be different courses of action to choose from hen's has already pointed out there must be two or more conflicting options to choose from for moral dilemmas to occur and third no matter what course of action is taken some moral principles are always compromised this means that according to Allen there is no perfect solution to the problem and for this reason according to Benjamin lemma Steen in moral dilemmas the moral agent seems fated to commit something wrong which implies that she is bound to morally fail because in one way or another she will fail to do something which she ought to do in other words by choosing one of the possible moral requirements the person also fails on others now let's proceed to the different types of moral dilemmas there are several types of moral dilemmas but the most common of them are categorized into the following first epistemic and ontological dilemmas second self imposed and world imposed dilemmas third obligation dilemmas in prohibition dilemmas and fourth single agent and multi person dilemmas epistemic moral dilemmas involve situations where in two or more moral requirements conflict with each other and that the moral agent hardly knows which of the conflicting moral requirements takes precedence over the other in other words the moral agent here does not know which option is morally right or wrong for instance I ought to honour my promise to my son to be home early but in my way home I saw a sick old man who needs to be brought to the hospital where does my actual Judy lie we cannot deny that they are conflicting Jews here but we need to note that we want a fuller knowledge of the situation is an important purpose being served by me getting home early how serious is the condition of the sick old man indeed I could hardly decide which option is morally right in this situation however one option must be better than the other only it needs fuller knowledge of the situation that's the term epistemic moral dilemmas ontological moral dilemmas on the other hand involve situations where in two or more moral requirements conflict with each other yet neither of these conflicting moral requirements overrides each other this is not to say that the moral agent doesn't know which moral requirement is stronger than the other the point is that neither of the moral requirements is stronger than the other hence the moral agent can hardly choose between the conflicting moral requirements for instance a military doctor is attending to the needs of the wounded soldiers in the middle of the war unfortunately two soldiers urgently need a blood transfusion however only one bag of blood is available at the moment to whom shall the doctor administer the blood transfusion for sure we could not tell whether administering a blood transfusion to soldier a is more moral than administering a blood transfusion to soldier B and vice versa now let's proceed to the second category of moral dilemmas that is self-imposed moral dilemma and world imposed moral dilemmas a self-imposed moral dilemma is caused by the moral agents wrongdoings for example David is running for the position of town mayor during the campaign period he promised the indigenous peoples in his community to protect their virgin forests just to gain their votes but at the same time he seeks financial support from a mining corporation fortunately David won the elections yet he is faced with the dilemma of fulfilling his promise to the indigenous peoples and at the same time allows the mining corporation to destroy their forests indeed through his own actions David created a situation in which is impossible for him to be discharged from both obligations a world imposed moral dilemma on the other hand means that certain events in the world plays the agent in a situation of moral conflict William Styron's famous Sophie's Choice is a classic example so feats of its obscure has been asked to choose which of her two children Ava or Yan will be sent to the gas chamber in Auschwitz an SS doctor fritzy Amman Fon niemand will grant a dispensation to only one of Sophie's children if she does not choose which one should live dr. Fon neimand will send it both to their death so if he chooses her daughter Eva to go to the gas chamber her son Yan is sent to the children's camp now on the third category of moral dilemmas we have obligation dilemmas and prohibition dilemmas obligation dilemmas are situations in which more than one feasible action is obligatory while prohibition dilemmas involved cases in which all feasible actions are forbidden the famous archery student is a classic example of obligation dilemma it reads Sartre uses the anecdote of a former students moral dilemma during the World War two to illustrate both the limits of making decisions based on a defined moral code in the erroneous nosov blaming passions for people's actions the French students brother was killed in 1940 by the Germans but his father nonetheless later abandoned the family to collaborate with the Germans the student had to choose between staying in France with his mother who found her only comfort in him and leaving to fight to the Free French against the German occupation after realizing he was caught between moral principles or family and nation for the obligation to care for his mother and the obligation to avenge his brother's death he came to for advice the philosopher told his student that there was no correct or incorrect decision neither moral codes nor the strength of his affections for one or the other party can determine what to do rather the student had to invent his own solution to the problem on the other hand the famous Sophie's Choice mentioned earlier is a classic example of prohibition dilemmas finally in single agent dilemma the agent ought all things considered to do a ought all things considered to do be and she cannot do both a and B in other words the moral agent is compelled to act in two or more equally the same moral options but she cannot choose both for instance a medical doctor found out that her patient has HIV for sure the medical doctor may experience tension between the legal requirement to report the case and the desire to respect confidentiality although the medical code of ethics technologists are obligation to follow legal requirements and to intervene to protect the vulnerable in multi-person dilemma on the other hand the situation is such that one agent p1 ought to do a a second agent p2 ought to do B and though each agent can do what he ought to do it is not possible both for p1 to do a and p2 to do B according to Benjamin lemma Steen the multi-person does not in as much as agents XY and Z may possibly have chosen conflicting moral choices that is person X chooses a instead of B and C and person Y chooses B instead of a E and C and so on and so forth the multi person dilemma occurs in situations that involve several persons like a family an organization or a community who is expected to come up with consensual decision on a moral issue attend a family may be torn between choosing to terminate or prolong the life of a family member an organization may have to choose between complying with a wage law by cutting its workforce or by retaining its current workforce by paying them below the required minimum wage the multi-person dilemma requires more than choosing what is right it also entails that the persons involved reached a general consensus in such a manner the moral obligation to do what is right becomes more complicated in the multi-person dilemma on the one hand the integrity of the decision ought to be defended on moral grounds on the other hand the decision must also prevent the organization from breaking apart that answer discussion on moral dilemmas and thank you for visiting us today for another whiteboard edition here at field notes full transcript of this video is available at fili notes calm and to keep you updated of our newest videos simply click here to subscribe and tap the bell for notifications thanks take care