Ethical Dilemmas
Choose only one of the ethical dilemmas below to address in your essay. The questions at the end of each dilemma are intended for you to reflect on. For your paper, you must organize your writing using the sections and underlined titles listed on the assignment page.
1. Pornography
TJ secretly enjoys pornography. He gets a great deal of gratification out of viewing Internet pornography and masturbating, though he always acts behind closed doors and believes that his actions have no effect on others. He justifies his behavior by saying, “Who am I harming?”
2. Euthanasia
Joni was 17 when she was swimming with friends in the Chesapeake Bay. She dove into the water, misjudging the depth, and fractured her vertebrae. This left her a quadriplegic, paralyzed from her shoulders down. As might be expected, she went into severe depression, even having serious thoughts of ending her life. Her quality of life was severely diminished. Her future looked horribly bleak.
What could she ever hope to accomplish as a human being in such a weakened state? Why should she be forced to endure a life of suffering and hardship and be a burden to her family? Should her wishes to be euthanized be granted? What do you think? Should someone in her condition be permitted to have her life legally terminated?
