This unit discusses Kohlbergs Theory of Moral Development and the Heinz Dilemma scenario helps classify an individuals stage of moral development. How would you respond if faced with this dilemma? Based on your response to the Heinz Dilemma, available below, what stage of moral development would Kohlberg say you are in? Why? How might your response to this dilemma have changed if you were in a different stage of moral development?
The Heinz Dilemma
A woman was on her deathbed. 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. So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s laboratory to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?
