Answer to Question #167771 in Philosophy for Markesha

Question

You have worked as a bank teller for several months when one of the other tellers who has become a good friend tells you that her daughter is extremely ill and that she must have an operation to survive. She also tells you that because she had to cut back on her hours at the bank, she has lost her insurance and the operation will cost $10,000. Some time later you ask her about her daughter and she tells you she is just fine now. She then confides in you that she took $10,000.00 from a dormant account at the bank to pay for the operation.

She assures you that she has already started paying it back and will continue to do so until it is all returned.

What do you do?

Answer 1

In this case, I will embrace the principle of the lesser evil. This is the principle that when faced with selecting from two immoral options, the least immoral one should be chosen. In this case, if he did not get money for the operation, the daughter would have died. Therefore, the two evils are stealing and losing a life. Since he has promised to pay back the cash, I think he made the right decision to save the life of the daughter.