Ethical dilemma of the month
Each month we present a fictional ethical dilemma which you can use to 'workout' your ethics and explore ethical decision-making.
Learn more about ethical decision-making. If you have a real ethical dilemma, our free Ethics Counselling service, Ethi-Call, may be of assistance.
Current ethical dilemma:
The bounds of friendship
June 2008
Please note that we have had a break in our recent monthly dilemmas due to limited capacity while we've been working on other projects. Apologies for the gap!
Your best friend tells you that she is thoroughly fed up with being abused by a mutual acquaintance - someone you also dislike.
In strict confidence your friend tells you that she intends to take matters into her own hands. Indeed, she plans to arrange some informal rough justice.
If you try to prevent this course of action or report it to the authorities you know you would most likely lose the confidence of your best friend.
Ethical questions:
- What are the issues?
- Who are the stakeholders?
- What should you do?
- What would you do?
Discuss this ethical dilemma in our Ethics Forum.
Learn more about different ways you can try to resolve ethical dilemmas. You can also find out about Ethi-Call, our free Ethics Counselling service, which can assist you to make ethical decisions when faced with real life ethical dilemmas.
View other ethical dilemmas.