"Serious ethical dilemmas and conflicts are preceded by other moral failures or injustices"
Hi, great article, and I completely agree with the above statement.
If I may add a moral dilemma I faced while living in a condominio. I had a pet cat, so did others, but sometimes they urinated and deficated in the childrens sand pit in the community playground. Cats are curious and independent creatures they like to explore. Locking them inside a house all day is cruel and in my opinion violates their animals rights. On the other hand, by allowing my cat outside I knew there was a probability that it would damage community property and pose a health risk to the children. As my pet cat, its actions were my responsabilty and I had no right to damage property and increase the risk of harming others.
So I had a moral dilemma between treating an animal ethically and treating my fellow humans ethically.
Now one solution would be that I accompany the cat every time it exits the house, but due to my laziness, carelessness, and selfishness, etc, my moral failings, I did not accompany my cat. Either did the other cat owners.
To be fair, the moral failing might not be yours as such. Why build condo's in such a way that children and cat's can't coexist? I mean - lots of people have cats, and lots of people have children...
Fair point. Perhaps a cage around the sand pit would work. However maybe the fundamental moral failing or injustice is the domestication of animals. Maybe "owning" a pet is immoral in itself ? It violates the golden rule "do unto others..." unless that is we ourselves would desire to be owned by another being. Now if on the otherhand a stray cat not owned by anyone did his thing in the sand pit then nothing immoral is taking place. Ownership entails responsibility.