Solutions to Moral Dilemmas Using the Principles of Ethics
- When seeking a solution to a moral dilemma, evaluate the problem from a number of different directions. Morally acceptable solutions to ethical problems can be discovered by asking and answering some of the following questions. Who will be helped by the outcome of this choice? Who will be hurt by the various outcomes? What kind of benefits or harm will come to the individuals involved, and will they be permanent or temporary? What are the long-term consequences of the individual decisions? By evaluating the practical consequences or outcomes of individual choices, individuals can find morally and ethically acceptable solutions.
- Another perspective to evaluate a moral dilemma is to consider if the specific actions involved in the solution are morally prohibited or not, regardless of the outcome. When faced with a dilemma which has no positive outcome for the parties involved, these questions can help define the ethical course of action. Are the individual actions needed to work out the problem morally or ethically prohibited? Are the actions honest, fair, treat the parties equally and with dignity, and respect the party's rights equally? Should preferential treatment be given to those who are vulnerable or less fortunate within the scope of the dilemma? These questions can help re-frame the discussion and point towards a morally and ethically acceptable solution.
- At the core of moral dilemmas, social and absolute ethical principles are often at conflict with one another. Social moral principles are no less important than absolute ethical principles to the people involved. Here is an example of how violating a social principle is acceptable in order to uphold a more important absolute moral or ethical principle. Using these ethics principles, speeding down the highway in excess of posted speed limits is permitted in order to bring an injured man to a hospital to save his life. In this case, the absolute moral and ethical principle is held in higher consideration than the social or legal principle.
- Moral dilemmas can also be evaluated on the basis of their short-term and long-term consequences. If short-term consequences are overshadowed by long-term benefits, then moral dilemma can find its ethical solution by pursuing an outcome which obtains the greatest long-term benefit for the greatest number of people. For example, although war is a morally-objectionable pursuit, nations can ethically justify entering a war if the long-term outcome overshadows the short-term cost of money, resources and lives expended in the moral pursuit of peace.