English 11: Identity and Truth in a Changing World - Home



STATION 3 The Heinz Dilemma At this station, you will consider a moral/ethical dilemma and debate with your group members about the most appropriate course of action. The dilemma proposed below is one that psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg used in his original research. We will revisit this dilemma later in the unit to see how it ties into A Doll’s House.STEP ONE: READ THE DILEMMA (Do not discuss your answer with your group at this point!)A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." What should he do?Should Heinz break into the laboratory to steal the drug?STEP TWO: INDIVIDUAL REACTIONSOn a sheet of notebook paper, BEFORE DISCUSSING WITH YOUR GROUP MEMBERS, write your initial impression of the Heinz dilemma. Answer the question: Should Heinz break into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Be sure to explain why or why not in a few sentences.STEP THREE: GROUP DISCUSSIONAfter each person in your group has written his/her own answers, take a minute for each person to read his/her initial response. Then, answer the following questions as a group.What factors are involved in each person’s decision about whether or not Heinz should steal the drug?What potential consequences does Heinz face if he does decide to steal the drug? Are these consequences outweighed by the benefit of saving his wife?What if the sick woman were a stranger? Should Heinz still steal the drug? Why or why not?What if Heinz doesn’t particularly even like his wife? Should he still steal the drug?Let’s pretend that the drug is being stolen to save an animal. Should he steal the drug now?STEP FOUR: CONSEQUENCESSuppose that Heinz steals the drug and is caught by law enforcement officers. Pretend that your group is the jury in the trial. Should Heinz be convicted of theft and be punished? If so, how should he be punished? What are the consequences if he is not punished? ................
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