personal ethical dilemma theme

A character struggles with a tough decision that involves choices that are hard because they involve moral considerations. Would you, for example, let another person die if that was the only way to save your own life?

Ancestors

human tough decision › individual humans › personal human experience › the human world

Child themes (33)

abandoning someone to save one's self, breaking the law for personal advantage, breaking the law to cover up another crime, choosing between conflicting loyalties, choosing whether to kill someone to spare them suffering, choosing who dies and who lives, compassion vs. public safety, compassion vs. self-preservation, compromising one's ethical principles for personal advantage, compromising one's ethical principles vs. great need, conflict of duty, covering up a crime to save a friend, desire vs. conscience, family vs. conscience, fighting evil with evil, friendship vs. personal conviction, friendship vs. personal gain, great need vs. breaking the law, keeping a promise when circumstances have changed, love vs. conscience, love vs. self-preservation, love vs. the public good, playing it fair vs. taking an advantage, sacrificing a friend to save one's self, sacrificing a loved one to defeat an enemy, saving a friend vs. self-preservation, saving innocent lives vs. compromising one's ethical principles, self-preservation vs. conscience, selling out for money, taking the law into one's own hands, the good of society vs. personal gain, the life of a loved one vs. the lives of many, to tell the truth vs. to offer a comforting lie

14 total · 4 choice · 3 major · 7 minor

Story	Level	Motivation
ahp2x12	choice	Should Julia reporting the murder she'd witnessed her sister commit?
ahp2x17	choice	Martin had to choose between obeying the law and protecting his wife.
ahp4x13	choice	At the heart of the story was the unusual circumstances that posed the following dilemma for Arthur: Should he obey the wishes of the talking corpse of Baryvale and have a frugal funeral, or follow the instructions he received from Barryvale's lawyer for a lavish funeral from which he would greatly profit.
owgm1x19	choice	The solicitor Bruce Sexton Bruce Saxton was saddled with the following quandary: A client, by leaving a note in his will, had confessed a murder to Bruce. Should Bruce tell the police in order to save someone innocent from being accused, or did he have a duty of confidentially towards his client? Bruce thought the client dead when he unsealed the will, but had been mistaken.
ldr2019e3x06	major	Galina struggled over whether to work with Simon to help humanity flourish because the execution of his plan would exploit the Swarm aliens.
talesoftheunexpected6x13	major	Who between Caroline and Brodie should take the last existing dose of an immortality drug?
talesoftheunexpected9x09	major	Yves in choosing between mistress and baby on one hand, and sordid acts to get out of his marriage on the other.
ahh1x08	minor	The upstanding citizen John was struggling with the moral dilemma of whether to go to the police or not.
ahh2x10	minor	Lana and Harry briefly deliberated whether they should call the police and explain what had happened, even though it would ruin Lana's career and fortune. They quickly decided in favor of remaining rich instead.
ahh3x28	minor	Nurse Hatch briefly struggled over the decision of whether or not to help Jerry escape from the hospital.