What is a Moral Dilemma?

Decisions, decisions… Normally, if you have to make a decision between stealing something and not stealing it is, in most cases, easy to decide what is the right thing to do. Most decisions though, are harder to make!

Choices Sometimes it seems that what ever you do that something good will happen and something bad will happen! Doing what is right Doing what is wrong This is a moral dilemma! Bad outcome Good outcome

Mrs Franklin and her cats You are in a busy supermarket. Among all of the people there, you recognise one old lady, Mrs. Franklin. She lives near you, and has a reputation for being rather strange. She lives on her own in a shabby house with a lot of cats.

Mrs Franklin’s story is well known. Both her husband and their only son were killed in a car crash 30 years ago. She fell apart and has never recovered. She cut herself off from the world, devoting all her love and attention to the family’s pet cats. As the years passed, the number of cats she homed grew, and the old lady became more and more eccentric. She has very little money and lives in a mess. What little she has, she prefers to spend on her beloved cats than herself.

What do you do? How might your decision affect Mrs. Franklin? In the supermarket, you see old Mrs Franklin pick up a tin of cat food and put it in her pocket. She clearly intends to leave the shop without paying for it.

Would it have made any difference if? 1)Mrs Franklin was stealing from a small family run shop, not a big supermarket chain? 2)Mrs Franklin could afford to buy the cat food? 3)Mrs Franklin was stealing the food for herself? 4)You would be punished for not reporting the theft?

Would it have made any difference if? 5) You didn’t like Mrs Franklin? 6)Mrs Franklin had been prosecuted for shoplifting before? 7)You were religious? 8)Mrs Franklin had living relatives?

THAT WAS A DILEMMA!