Moral Case

CLE MORAL CASE

GENTLENESS – III-C

Case number: 7

Case: A bunch of young Catholic, European boys off to a soccer game survive a plane crash in the Andes Mountains. They are in the middle of nowhere and are dying of hunger. There are no supplies and they have no idea if and when they will be rescued. One of the badly wounded boys dies, and they decided to eat him to keep alive. When they were rescued, they later said that if they were in the position of the dead boys, they would agree to be eaten also. Was their cannibalistic way morally right?

Initial Statement: The act of Cannibalism is morally wrong.

A. S-earch out the fact

1. Facts

a. What is it all about?

Our case is about a team of young players whose plane crashed in a mountain. With no available resources, they resorted to cannibalism for survival.

b. Why do it?

The young players decided to eat the dead bodies because that was the only way they thought of in order to survive.

c. Who are the people involved?

The people involved were the young men of the Uruguayan rugby team who were in the plane headed to their game.

d. Where did it happen?

The incident happened in Mount Andes.

e. When did it happen?

According to further research, the incident happened during 1972.

f. How did it happen?

Since the players did not find any available resources near them aside from the dead bodies, they chose to eat the bodies instead of eating nothing at all.

2. Conflicting values

Living through the flesh of others versus dying of hunger

B. T-hink about alternatives and consequences

1. Alternatives to proposed actions

a. List of alternatives

i. To go down and search for food and people

ii. To suffer from hunger

iii. To die together while waiting for rescue

b. Is it the principle of last resort?

It is not the principle of last resort because there were other ways they could have done in order to survive....