# An Ethical Dilemma **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 17, 1999, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-ethical-dilemma/17051 "1999-12-17T01:51:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-ethical-dilemma/17051/21 "1999-12-20T21:50:00Z")
There was a show on TV an number of years ago. It was a roundtable discussion with several legal experts and similar, and was about various ethical and legal delemna’s(sp). This was the subject of one show, where the woman finds out she has the choice of the baby or her. Which is the right choice, is there a right choice, and what happens if she changes her mind later on. Was actually a very intriging show, wish it had been on earlier in the day, 1:00AM was too late for me to watch often. And no, I can’t recall the name of it. * * * \>\>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.\<\< —The dragon observes ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-ethical-dilemma/17051/22 "1999-12-20T21:56:00Z")
As I recall _Sophie’s Choice_, she was told that she had to choose to send one of her children to the gas chamber or they both would be sent. Her dilemma then was that to save the life of one of her children she had to become an accomplice in the death of the other. ---
**Author:** ![Hundeherz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f08c70/32.png) [@Hundeherz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hundeherz)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-ethical-dilemma/17051/23 "1999-12-21T00:46:00Z")
That’s how I remember it too. It seemed to me that faced with a monstrous set of circumstances beyond her control she made a straightforward pragmatic choice and saved the one with the better chance of survival in the camp - the elder child. ---
**Author:** ![\_Df](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/7ba0ec/32.png) [@\_Df](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Df)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-ethical-dilemma/17051/24 "1999-12-21T01:34:00Z")
Just a real-world note to add, though it wasn’t part of the original hypothetical: There’s no guarantee that the chemotherapy will “cure the mother.” It improves the odds of her long-term survival, but for any who really face this horrible circumstance, the variable chance that both might die _in either case_ has to be part of the calculation. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-ethical-dilemma/17051/25 "1999-12-21T07:45:00Z")
PunditLisa Member posted 12-17-1999 06:59 AM > [@](#): > > If I was faced with a “Sophie’s Choice”, I’d take both my children’s hands and go to the gas chamber together, rather than choose one over the other. That seems selfish to me. I don’t mean that as an insult, but simply a statement of fact. (The fact being that I believe that it is selfish, not that it is selfish). If you give up the chance to save one of your children just so that you’ll be spared a difficult decision, then it seems to me that you’re putting yourself ahead of your children. RickG Member posted 12-17-1999 09:12 AM > [@](#): > > Sophie’s Choice is a much harder question. I don’t think it’s ok to commit murder (that is, to kill an innocent third party under threat of death–it’s ok to kill an enemy in self-defense) to save yourself or another Just what makes something murder? Suppose you’re the driver of the aforementioned semi. Are morally obligated to swerve, jeopardizing your own life? Would placing your own welfare ahead of others’ be murder? At what point does not being selfless transform into selfishness? These are difficult questions, and I don’t think that there are any simple answers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-ethical-dilemma/17051.md?page=1)