Occasional Tales

The animal-loving professor. Professor Purple is so engrossed in writing a paper for the Philosophical Society that he forgets he has an ethics class to teach. But as he hurries to the lecture theatre, he sees that a dog has fallen into the lake and is unable to get out. Professor Purple wades in and rescues the dog, but by the time he gets to the class, he’s rather late and the students aren’t pleased. Professor Purple explains what happened and sets the event as an ethics problem. The students think that he did the right thing by saving the dog. But the next week, the same thing happens. This time about half of the students think that he should’ve left the stupid creature to its own devices. The week after, and the dog’s back in the lake and Professor Purple refers the matter to one of the university porters. When he gets to class, he tells his students his new policy. Rescuing the dog every week is outweighed by the professor’s need to get to class on time. As he explains, this is u...

Promises were made to be broken. I’m back from my holiday, have had a week at school (ugh), and feel like resuming the series of ethical dilemmas. Part I Today’s dilemma is a fairy tale, The Frog Prince. You know the one. When the youngest princess loses her golden ball in a pond, a frog offers to retrieve it provided the princess promises to cohabit with him. Naturally the frog gets the ball, but the princess, who hasn’t been reading her fairy tales or she’d know without question that the frog is a prince, reneges on the deal and goes home. But shouldn’t the princess keep her promise? Even to a frog? Since talking frogs would appear to be nothing unusual in the princess’s world, we can perhaps overlook that the frog is not human and would, therefore, have no rights enshrined in law. A promise may be a verbal or written contract. The law may say that any promise, verbal or written, constitutes contract, which makes the princess liable to keep the promise she made to the frog. Or the la...

For the budget-conscious in today’s economically troubled times, several dilemmas for the price of one. Dilemma 40 Sandra, who works in the typing pool, is slacking off. Jackie tries to get Bob to go with her to see Mustafa about it, but Bob thinks that because they can handle the work, there’s no need. This implies that the company could sack Sandra if Jackie and Bob can cope with the work, but this may be a short-term view since the volume may vary at different times of the year (which suggests that they could hire a temp when needed). There’s no suggestion in the scenario that anyone allocates the typing to be done, which implies that the work is done by the first person who’s free to do it. Really, Jackie should bring Sandra’s poor work ethic to the company’s attention. But then Jackie finds out that Sandra’s filching company software. Since that’s theft, then an ethical employee would report the case to management. Also, Jackie is spurred on by Sandra’s indolence, although I’m sur...

Toss the coin and be done with it. John Brown has been badly injured in a motorbike accident and is now in a coma. Dr Doe informs his parents that there’s no chance of recovery. Mrs Brown thinks there’s hope. (What a modern parent – she denies the truth about her child.) The doctor explains further that although John can be kept alive, he’s using up real estate and resources. She lets them think about it. The hospital philosopher, Dr Gnatt, then comes and visits the Browns to determine what John might’ve wanted depending on his philosophy and beliefs. Since Mr and Mrs Brown haven’t the faintest, Dr Gnatt outlines their two choices: keep the machine on or turn it off. He gets a coin out of his pocket and asks, “Heads or tails?” What should the Browns reply? Of course, it’d be unethical to toss a coin to make such a decision, but if the parents were stupid enough to let their son own a motorbike, then this is an easy and impartial way to make a decision about their son. I suppose the dil...