HOW TO FACE MORAL DILEMMAS
Claire Foster © 2006
Here is how to face moral dilemmas.
Take ownership of your decision. Even if you discuss your problem with others whom you respect and take their advice, make sure the decision you come to is still yours. You need to be prepared to face the consequences of your actions and not blame others.
That means you need moral courage. This isn’t the same thing as moral certainty. It is the capacity to face a situation honestly, reflect on it maturely, act, and accept the consequences of your action.
When making a decision, the circumstances need to be interrogated and analysed so that you can be sure the decision you make is rigorous, robust, and stands to reason. There is a series of questions you can ask along these lines:
· What is the action going to achieve?
· Will anyone be harmed by the action?
· Do those most affected by the action want it to happen?
These are goal-based, duty-based and right-based questions. Richard Dworkin applied them to law, Sophie Botros applied them to medical ethics, and I applied them to medical research on human subjects.
When you’ve asked those questions, you might find that the goal of your action is really desirable but people may be harmed by it; or they may not want you to do it. Then you have a dilemma. If that happens, if there is something that is really good and important that has to be ignored for the action to take place, wait. Don’t assume you’ve got to choose one good over another good. It may be possible to find a balance. Work out what’s good and true in each of the arguments, and stick with those. Then see what happens. If nothing happens, don’t think you have failed. Keep looking for the good and supporting it.
It may be that you need to know more, either factual detail about the issue under debate, or understanding of why a person or a group of people might hold to a particular view. That is especially important if you think have been convinced yourself, one way or the other. Double check your stance by making sure you have fully understood the other side of the argument. Talk to sensible people who hold the view that opposes yours. Above all, never, never caricature an argument in order to demolish it. That is cheating.
The answers you come to can’t be anticipated, but they will have some things in common. The first is that the answer will be to the particular question that has been posed, not a general response to the general dilemma. The second is that it is unexpected, somehow new. The third is that it is OK, acceptable, probably very simple. The fourth is that no one is criticised or demonised or put in the wrong. The fifth is that you feel like you’ve given from the bottom of your heart and it sort of hurts, but it is totally satisfying. The sixth is that you don’t mind if people disagree with you, you don’t feel any need to defend your offering, nor do you feel very attached to it. In fact you feel remarkably free.