Case Study on "Ethical Dilemma Confronting Unjust Authority"

Case Study 4 pages (1159 words) Sources: 4

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Ethical Dilemma: Confronting Unjust Authority Case Study

Ethical dilemma

An ethical dilemma denotes a case in where one experiences a mental conflict whereby ethical obligations conflict in a way that any resolution is ethically intolerable. This implies that all the available options cannot be determined by guiding moral principles. An example is a situation whereby one has to decide between not to steal and to provide for a family that you cannot be able to provide for without stolen money (Garber, 2008). In such a case, stealing might be considered to be wrong by one person because of the fact that this person is using a wrong way to provide for his family. Conversely, someone else might consider it differently since this man has a family which is looking up to him for food.

Situation

In the case of situation one in Pollack's book, police officers have developed a routine of going to the restaurant on the corner. This is a place whereby they have their meals during their patrols (Harding, 2010). None of them ever pays for meals and therefore making this restaurant their favorite meal point. Moreover, the restaurant does not also request for payment from these officers. Officers tend to order for food that could cost them a lot if at all they were going to pay.

The restaurant owner has also encouraged these officers to visit his restaurant because he does not request for any payment from the police officers (Garber, 2008). The officers too have made an assumption that their presence at the restaurant is highly welcomed. They have also not been limited to the kind of food they can order and thus the wide variety of food they can order for.

It is also uncertain whether the owner would accept to take money from the new officer. This complicates the situation more since no officer usually pays and how the new officer will be viewed if at all he is going to offer any payment to the owner. The owner of the business is obviously in business to make profits and to sustain his investment (Harding, 2010). He spends money on all the inputs to his business and would therefore expect to earn returns from his expenditure.

With these facts in mind, it would be considered that the police officers should pay for the food offered to them even with the fact that they are allowed to eat for free. Even if meals are cheap enough for them to be offered freely, the officers are supposed to pay for them.

Dilemma

The new officer is torn between paying for the meals and having it for free. He does not know whether to follow in the footsteps of the experienced officers or to follow the moral code. The owner seems not to be having any problem with the officers taking free meals and the new officer is also told that the restaurant owner likes to have them around (Harding, 2010). It is also not known to him how the owner would react if he opted to pay for the meal. This draws him to an ethical dilemma. Should he assume everything and offer for food that is freely given? Should he honor the owner by paying for what he eats?

Ethical dilemmas always result to the existence of more than one choice such that none of them seems to be the best option. When one picks one of the choices, he is not at… READ MORE

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