Moral Reasoning: Moral Reasoning Is The Process of Determining Right or Wrong in A Given Situation

Moral Reasoning
Moral reasoning is the process of determining

right or wrong in a given situation.
4 Steps to Moral Reasoning
When faced with a problem, there are four
main steps that should be considered
before making a decision.
Depending on your objective a moral

answer may not be the best one for you. It
is good, however, to be able to understand
what is the “good” answer before making
your own decision.
1. Recognize
First you must determine the problem that
you are trying to solve. Sometimes there
are pieces of information that complicate
the situation. These can be dealt with
after the original problem has been
identified.
2. Options
After determining the problem it is good to
list all the plausible options that you have
to choose from.
3. Consider
When the options have been listed they
can each be considered. This is the
process where the pros and cons are
thought about with respect to your overall
objective in the situation.
4. Decide
After all of the thinking has been done it is
time to make a decision. If all of the
previous steps have been followed then
the decision should be obvious and make
sense morally. Sometimes it is not the
best answer for you, but is the ‘right’ thing
to do.
4 Steps
1. Recognize
2. Options
3. Consider
4. Decide
Dilemma #1
Concentration Camp
You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A

very mean 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?
Moral Dilemma #2
Enforcing the Law
The sheriff in a small town is guarding the courthouse

against a mob that is about to storm it by force, in order
to capture a prisoner just arrested for a particularly
heinous crime. The mob wants to lynch him without a
proper trial. If the mob is frustrated, many people may be
killed in the ensuing riot. There is a real possibility that
should the mob storm the courthouse, the sheriff and his
deputy might be killed. Should the sheriff deliver the
prisoner to the mob?
Moral Dilemma #3
An Innocent Man?
A man has been sentenced to prison for armed robbery,

and admits guilt for the deed. "But", he argues, "I'll never
do anything of the kind again. I'm not insane or a danger
to society. I would be happier out of jail than in. My wife
and children depend on me for support, and they would
be much happier if I were able to be the family
breadwinner again. As to the influence on others, almost
no one would ever know about it; you can keep the
matter out of the newspapers and no one except you will
ever know that you have released me. Therefore, you
should release me." Assuming his statements of fact are
correct, should he be released?
Moral Dilemma #4
The Orphan’s Van
You run an orphanage and have had a hard time

making ends meet. A car dealership offers you a
new van worth $15,000 for free if you will falsely
report to the government that the dealership
donated a van worth $30,000. You really need
the van and it will give you an opportunity to
make the children happy. Do you agree to take
the van and make the false report?
Moral Dilemma #5
The Helpful Nurse
As a nurse, you are the last person to see Mr. Doe alive
before he dies in the hospital. You believe that he has
become mentally incompetent in the last few hours, and
in that time he has rewritten his will. In the new will he
viciously attacks each member of his adopted family and
reveals that he was actually born a woman. He then cuts
every family member out of the will, leaving his fortune to
a Psychic Chat-line. Mr. Doe asks you to make sure that
the new will gets to his lawyer. You are sure that the
document will most likely be thrown out of court, but will
in the interim cause considerable damage to Mr. Doe's
family. Do you carry our Mr. Doe's last request?

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Moral Reasoning

Moral reasoning is the process of determining

Depending on your objective a moral

You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A

The sheriff in a small town is guarding the courthouse

A man has been sentenced to prison for armed robbery,

You run an orphanage and have had a hard time

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