Lifeboat choices Lesson 48 of the religion ethics course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: the lesson at school .
0 A dilemma is a hard choice where every option costs something: a lifeboat with room for only some people, one dose of medicine and two sick people, one place left on the school trip. 1 Ethics asks not only "what should we choose?" but "how should we choose?": a fair way, such as drawing lots, a waiting list or helping the one in greatest need, can be better than picking favourites. 2 Two kinds of thinking often meet here: rules thinking ("some things you must never do") and consequences thinking ("do what leads to the best results"), and they do not always agree. 3 Christians see Jesus giving his life for others as the greatest example of self-sacrifice; it is admired, but nobody is required to be a hero. 4 Sometimes there is no perfect answer; then a child today can still choose the least bad option, give honest reasons and treat everyone with respect. 5 A dilemma is a choice in which every option has a cost. 6 In the lifeboat dilemma there is room for only some people, and ethics asks which ways of choosing are fair. 7 Fair procedures for sharing something scarce include drawing lots (picking names out of a hat), a waiting list and helping those in greatest need. 8 Choosing only the "most useful" people is often criticised as unfair, because every person has equal worth. 9 The trolley problem pictures a runaway tram (a trolley) heading for five people, and a lever that would switch it onto a track where it would hit one; it asks whether it is right to let one person be harmed to save five; people still disagree about it. 10 Rules thinking and consequences thinking often give different answers to the trolley problem. 11 Many people think there is a difference between doing harm and allowing harm, though this is disputed. 12 "Women and children first" was an old rule for shipwrecks; people still discuss whether it is fair. 13 Many people think the most vulnerable, such as small children, should be protected first. 14 A group that must live together, as on a desert island, needs fair rules and leaders who serve everyone. 15 Christians see Jesus' death for others as the greatest example of self-sacrifice. 16 Self-sacrifice is admired, but it is usually seen as going beyond duty, not something everyone is required to do. 17 Some dilemmas have no clearly right choice; then we look for the least bad option and give honest reasons. ← previous The environmentnext → Rights, duties and community dilemmas↑ back to Religion ethics This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/48-lifeboat-choices/