What is right and what is wrong? Who decides what is morally correct? How does one act so that one does not repent afterwards? This moral dilemma has been the subject of discussion since ages and many of us come across crossroads in our life when we are unable to decide about the morally correct action. Let me discuss this with a hypothetical example.



In my example, I have a couple deeply in love with each other. The husband is very protective and cannot bear someone even looking at his wife. The wife is an uneducated lady with no knowledge of any trade. Both love each other very deeply. One bad day, the husband is diagnosed with cancer and may die if not treated immediately. The family has no savings and the husband loses his job because of his sickness. The wife is helpless and does not know what to do? For her the future means watching her husband die slowly and surely.

One fine day, the wife announces that she has got some kind of night job, which will pay for the medicines. She gives a rough description of the job and money begins coming in. The medicines get bought and hope returns again about the life of the husband. As destined, the husband comes to know that the wife was prostituting her body to get money to save him. He confronts the wife and she confesses and raises the question - I had two choices. Either to wait and watch you dying or sell myself but save you. The husband is hurt beyond measure and wants to know if she was aware about his protective nature? The wife says that she knows everything and hates herself more everyday. Takes bath hundreds of times to cleanse herself, but cannot wash the mutilation her body is going through. But this is better than your death, says the wife. One day after that, the husband commits suicide after the wife leaves home. After her return, she also commits suicide.

Who was morally right? Or both were right? Or both were wrong? Would it have been better to commit suicide after realizing that there were no options right in the beginning? We can think of all the different possibilities and may never reach a conclusion of what was morally right? Or each of us will reach his/her own conclusion depending upon one's idea about what is moral and what is immoral.