TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 Prompt Resolved: When deciding on a sentence for criminal acts, the courts will put rehabilitation above retribution.

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REVIEW Utilitarianism Deontology Cost-Benefit Analysis Lincoln-Douglas US Extemporaneous Public Forum Dramatic Interpretation Impromptu Extemporaneous Original Oratory Declamation

MORAL DILEMMAS What is a moral dilemma? What kind of debate involves morals? What you need to do….

THE TRAFFIC LIGHT It’s late at night and no one is around. You come to a traffic light and it turns red. You can see clearly in both directions that no one is around. Do you stop or go through?

HEINZ’S DILEMMA In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. the drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So, having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

A CALLOUS PASSERBY Roger Smith, a quite competent swimmer, is out for a leisurely stroll. During the course of his walk he passes by a deserted pier from which a teenage boy who apparently cannot swim has fallen into the water. The boy is screaming for help. Smith recognizes that there is absolutely no danger to himself if he jumps in to save the boy; he could easily succeed if he tried. Nevertheless, he chooses to ignore the boy's cries. The water is cold and he is afraid of catching a cold -- he doesn't want to get his good clothes wet either. "Why should I inconvenience myself for this kid," Smith says to himself, and passes on. Does Smith have a moral obligation to save the boy? If so, should he have a legal obligation ["Good Samaritan" laws] as well?

THE JIHADISTS AND THE DAUGHTER On 7 January 2015 Corrine Rey, a cartoonist at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and known by the name "Coco," returned from picking up her daughter from kindergarten. She was confronted by two French Jihadist gunmen, who threatened to shoot her daughter unless she keyed in the entry code at the door for the magazine. She did; and the gunmen entered to murder twelve people, including two policemen, as well as shooting eleven others. During the attack, the shooters said that they would not kill women, but that they needed to convert to Islam and wear a veil. Should Corrine Rey have been willing to sacrifice her daughter and herself rather than allow obvious murderers to enter the magazine and possibly kill everyone? Can a mother be blamed for only thinking of protecting her child?

PSYCHIATRIC CONFIDENTIALITY You are a psychiatrist and your patient has just confided to you that he intends to kill a woman. You're inclined to dismiss the threat as idle, but you aren't sure. Should you report the threat to the police and the woman or should you remain silent as the principle of confidentiality between psychiatrist and patient demands? Should there be a law that compels you to report such threats?

ROBIN HOOD You are an eyewitness to a crime: A man has robbed a bank, but instead of keeping the money for himself, he donates it to a poor orphanage that can now afford to feed, clothe, and care for its children. You know who committed the crime. If you go to the authorities with the information, there’s a good chance the money will be returned to the bank, leaving a lot of kids in need. What do you do?

COMPANY POLICY You have a job as network administrator for a company that also employs your best friend’s husband. One day, your best friend’s husband sends you a message asking you to release an from quarantine. This requires you to open the , at which point you discover that it’s correspondence between this guy and his secret lover. After releasing the , you find yourself in a pickle. Your instinct is to tell your best friend about his husband’s infidelities, but divulging the contents of company s is against company policy and you could lose your job. Once it becomes plain that your best friend found out about his cheating husband through a company , all trails will inevitably lead to you as the leak. Do you tell him about the indiscretion?

THE LIFEBOAT You’ve been on a cruise for two days when there’s an accident that forces everyone on board to abandon ship. During the evacuation, one of the boats is damaged, leaving it with a hole that fills it with water. You figure that with 10 people in the boat, you can keep the boat afloat by having nine people scoop the filling water out by hand for 10 minutes while the 10th person rests. After that person’s 10-minute rest, he or she will get back to work while another person rests, and so on. This should keep the boat from sinking long enough for a rescue team to find you as long as it happens within five hours. You’re taking your first brake when you notice your best friend in a sound lifeboat with only nine people in it and he beckons you to swim over and join them so you won’t have to keep bailing out water. If you leave the people in the sinking boat, they will only be able to stay afloat for two hours instead of five, decreasing their chance of being rescued, but securing yours. What do you do?

THE ORGAN DONOR You are a doctor at a top hospital. You have six gravely ill patients, five of whom are in urgent need of organ transplants. You can’t help them, though, because there are no available organs that can be used to save their lives. The sixth patient, however, will die without a particular medicine. If s/he dies, you will be able to save the other five patients by using the organs of patient 6, who is an organ donor. What do you do?

CONCENTRATION CAMP You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son who tried to escape and wants you to pull the chair from underneath him. He says that if you don’t he will not only kill your son but some other innocent inmate as well. You don’t have any doubt that he means what he says. What should you do?

THE ACCIDENT You are an emergency worker that was driving along and came upon the scene of an accident. When you arrive you see that the car belongs to your wife. Fearing the worst you rush over to see she is trapped in her car with another man. She sees you and although barely conscious, she manages to mouth the words “I’m sorry”… You don’t understand, but her look answers you question. The man next to her is her lover with whom she’s been having an affair. You reel back in shock, devastated by what her eyes have just told you. As you step back, the wreck in front of you comes into focus. You see your wife is seriously hurt and she needs attention straight away. Even if she gets attention there’s a very high chance she’ll die. You look at the seat next to her and see her lover. He’s bleeding heavily from a wound to the neck and you need to stem the flow of blood immediately. It will only take about 5 minutes to stop, but it will mean your wife will definitely die. If you tend to your wife however, the man will bleed to death despite the fact it could have been avoided. Who would you choose to work on?

THE PREGNANT WOMAN A pregnant woman leading a group of people out of a cave on a coast is stuck in the mouth of that cave. In a short time high tide will be upon them, and unless she is unstuck, they will all be drowned except the woman, whose head is out of the cave. Fortunately, (or unfortunately,) someone has with him a stick of dynamite. There seems no way to get the pregnant woman loose without using the dynamite which will inevitably kill her; but if they do not use it everyone will drown. What should they do?

SOPHIE’S CHOICE You are an inmate, imprisoned in a concentration camp. A guard tells you that you must choose one of your two children for him to take to the gas chamber. You have an eight-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter. If you choose neither, he will take them both. What would you do?

A MAD BOMBER A madman who has threatened to explode several bombs in crowded areas has been apprehended. Unfortunately, he has already planted the bombs and they are scheduled to go off in a short time. It is possible that hundreds of people may die. The authorities cannot make him divulge the location of the bombs by conventional methods. He refuses to say anything and requests a lawyer to protect his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. In exasperation, some high level official suggests torture. This would be illegal, of course, but the official thinks that it is nevertheless the right thing to do in this desperate situation. Do you agree?

THE AIRPLANE You are on a plane that is crashing. When the emergency lights come on and the oxygen masks come down, no oxygen mask comes down in front of the person sitting next to you. Do you give up your oxygen mask for this person, or do you let them fend for themselves? Another option is possibly to share, to take turns, but this could result in both people dying. For some people, it might depend on who is sitting next to them. If it was a loved one, especially someone’s child, the answer might be clearer. What if it were a stranger? Would you be as eager to give up your life for that of someone you don’t know?