Ethical Issues In The Donner Party

Words: 603
Pages: 3

Situational Ethics Every one has been in a situation were what was happening went against their morals, maybe it was at a party were some on asked them if they wanted some drug they didn’t believe in taking, or maybe it was after the party were their boyfriend was pressuring them to give up something they weren’t quite ready to give up, or maybe on a more serious note it was when some one was holding a gun to there head telling them if they didn’t do something they would die. I am going to assume that most of us haven’t been involved in the latter, however all of us have been in some sort of situation that called for us to compromise are standards. The question is when we are faced with these difficult situations that go against our ethics how do we react to them? Is it wrong to compromise are standards for the sake of our reputation or maybe even our life? …show more content…
The Donner party became trapped by heavy snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They little food and many starved to death however a few people in this party turned to cannibalism. Now they didn’t go and kill some one to eat, but they did eat those that had already died. I am pretty sure none of the members of the Donner party believed that cannibalism was okay. In fact I bet they all thought it was a horrible sin to commit and only the very lowest of people would commit it, however in there situation they became so desperate to survive they did it. Many don’t know what to think of this and to be honest I don’t either. Like many of you I say that there is no way I would ever do anything like this, it goes against everything I stand for, but I have never been in a situation like