LNAT Ethical and Moral Reasoning 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The 'trolley problem' thought experiment is designed primarily to explore which ethical question?
- Whether punishment should be retributive or rehabilitative
- How societies should allocate scarce medical resources equitably
- Whether it is morally permissible to harm one person to save many (Correct answer)
- Whether individuals have a duty to obey unjust laws
Correct answer: Whether it is morally permissible to harm one person to save many
The trolley problem tests whether it is morally acceptable to cause direct harm to one person in order to save a greater number, probing utilitarian versus deontological moral intuitions.
Question 2: Civil disobedience as described by Thoreau and practiced by Martin Luther King Jr. rests on the moral claim that:
- All laws must be obeyed because they represent the will of the democratic majority
- Individuals have a moral duty to resist laws they believe are fundamentally unjust (Correct answer)
- Violence is sometimes necessary to achieve meaningful social change
- Democratic systems automatically produce morally just laws
Correct answer: Individuals have a moral duty to resist laws they believe are fundamentally unjust
Civil disobedience is grounded in the moral claim that individuals retain a conscience-based duty to resist unjust laws, even while accepting legal consequences.
Question 3: In law, the 'reasonable person' standard primarily serves to:
- Protect defendants from overly strict legal liability in all cases
- Apply an objective ethical benchmark to evaluate individual conduct (Correct answer)
- Allow judges to apply their own personal moral views in deciding cases
- Reduce the burden of proof required in civil negligence cases
Correct answer: Apply an objective ethical benchmark to evaluate individual conduct
The 'reasonable person' standard provides an objective ethical and behavioral benchmark against which a defendant's conduct is measured, linking legal liability to shared moral expectations.
Question 4: Natural law theory, as articulated by thinkers like Aquinas, holds that:
- Law is whatever a sovereign power formally declares it to be
- Human-made laws derive legitimacy from conformity to universal moral principles (Correct answer)
- Morality is entirely culturally relative with no universal basis
- Legal rights exist wholly independently of any moral framework
Correct answer: Human-made laws derive legitimacy from conformity to universal moral principles
Natural law theory holds that human law must conform to universal moral principles discoverable by reason; laws that violate these principles lack true moral authority.
Question 5: A government passes a law producing great economic benefits for the majority but systematically disadvantaging a minority group. Which ethical framework would most clearly object on grounds of rights?
- Utilitarianism
- Legal positivism
- Rights-based (deontological) theory (Correct answer)
- Pragmatism
Correct answer: Rights-based (deontological) theory
Rights-based theory holds that individuals possess rights that cannot be violated even for majority benefit, making this law impermissible regardless of aggregate outcomes.
Question 6: 'Moral relativism' in ethical reasoning refers to the view that:
- All moral questions have a single correct answer discoverable through reason
- Moral judgments are universally valid across all cultures and historical periods
- Moral standards are not universally fixed but vary across cultures or individuals (Correct answer)
- Consequences are the only valid basis for moral evaluation
Correct answer: Moral standards are not universally fixed but vary across cultures or individuals
Moral relativism holds that what is considered right or wrong varies across cultures, individuals, or historical periods, denying universal moral standards.
Question 7: Which scenario best illustrates the ethical doctrine of 'double effect'?
- A judge sentences a defendant harshly specifically to deter future crimes by others
- A surgeon administers pain relief to a dying patient knowing it may hasten death, intending only to relieve suffering (Correct answer)
- A lawyer suppresses evidence knowing it will produce an unjust acquittal
- A legislator votes for a popular law they privately believe is morally unjust
Correct answer: A surgeon administers pain relief to a dying patient knowing it may hasten death, intending only to relieve suffering
The doctrine of double effect permits an act with two foreseen effects — one intended (pain relief) and one unintended (hastened death) — provided the intended effect is good and the harm is not the means to that good.
LNAT Ethical and Moral Reasoning 2
The 'trolley problem' thought experiment is designed primarily to explore which ethical question?