An Actual Ethical Dilemma Thread???

Also, would it regard suicide or euthanasia?

Ending ones life UNassisted is suicide.

Ending ones life ASSISTED is euthanasia

You - in your vet friend's situation - and suicide.

But - my dream for this thread was that we tried to be as objective as we could about the decisions.

Please don't get me wrong. I consider both suicide and euthanasia viable options, ethically.

You are so right, dlowan...and that really is/was my intention when I posted my long post about my friend. I guess the ethical part for me was, was I right or wrong to be there, knowing it was illegal. Did I have an obligation to tell anyone that an illegal act was going to happen/is happening/did happen.. And how much of my dear friends wishes did I need to take into account if making any of those decisions?

Oh sorry, lady J - I thought you were sharing, not su much raising an ethical dilemma!

I will be back.

Yep cav - I agree with you. Still - what do you think about the action in this specific circumstance of your friend's?

Yes, if I was faced with a choice between maintaining that confidence and some higher-order obligation.

Thanks, Joe - and I note I have begun breaking my own thread "rules" by moving into the hypothetical.

LOL


Just remember if you want to do this, as you or as anyone else, Oregon is not half bad for those last few moments.

I've considered moving to Oregon for various reasons, and that option is among them. We have the forest here too, as you know, but not the adjoining law.

You should give him the information. If you accept and work within the rules of a juridic system, then you must follow them.

It's tough for me to know exactly what I would have done in my vet's position. While I rally to hang on to life, I have to admit that when I was really sick with my liver problems, I got extremely despondent, and I wasn't dying! It's still a conundrum in my mind. I would have preferred he chose to try fighting, but on another level, I don't blame him for the choice he made.

Piffka's Short Treatise on Suicide
Well, sad as it seems, we will all die sometime. We don't, as they say, get out of here alive. I think any sane person does try on the suicide hat and wonder whether there's any point to life. Luckily, and I think importantly, most people decide to live out their mortal span for however long it may be.

The great tragedies in life, I've found, have been the loss of personalities whose individuality (and wit and charm) can never possibly be matched. It becomes lonesome, thinking of those who have gone before and with whom you can never continue or finish conversations. <sad, that>

Meanwhile, life is for the living. In most cases there are many, many people who count on you to stay alive and keep trying. To me, most suicide is, in the end, vanity and/or fear. Neither of those are highly desirable and should be stuffed back into that wicked sack of personality traits that we all have. We "should" bring out those "better" sensibilities of courage and hope.

As somebody said, it will all be one in a hundred years. Why rush it?

Okay, here's a dilemma. I already have my answer, but I'm interested in others' opinions: If you have two friends who hook up, and about 3-4 months down the line, you find that one is cheating on the other, do you tell, knowing that an obligation to one means a betrayal to the other?

It seems to me that your dilemma creates a conflict of obligations, because you must be loyal to the both. If it was me, I would not tell, unless directly asked. In this last situation I would tell because a lie would involve me in the betrayal situation of the cheating friend.
I believe in moral rules like loyalty and truth. But frequently we have to face conflicts between those moral rules: then, I think we should act according to the rule that is more important, or protects more important values.

I would definitely have a talk with the cheating friend...this has happened to me and what ended up happening is they both ended up pulling away from the friendship...so it is a lose-lose situation...but I can't keep quiet ..and had to confront the cheater...

Aargh - I tend to mind my own business - this is a sort of Prime Directive (yes - I know what I am betraying about myself!) situation.

My thoughts exactly, willow. I would first give the cheater the opportunity to tell their 'other' the truth...if they didn't, then I would step in. My reasoning is that since I have a friendship-based obligation to both, those cancel each other out, and all that's left is a moral obligation. But yeah, dlowan, I'm right there with you, wanting to just curl up into fetal position and hope it goes away...if only it ever did...

This can be tricky. Many times the friend who is the "cheatee" doesn't want to be told; the friend may know or suspect, and be in some zone of denial or just waiting for things to pass over time. Especially in a marriage situation, people may know more than you think they do. Or not want to know. It really isn't any one else's business.

That is how I usually think. But then if one considers STDs...
the question gets hairier to me.

I think that willow tl has the answer. Not to tell the person being cheated on but to talk to the person doing the cheating.

What would I do? Ethical or not, I'd stay out of it. My reason is that the person being cheated on may be angry with me for telling (denial, maybe, but angry), and the cheater may be angry with me as well. What have I gained? Nothing. What have I lost? Possibly two friends.