Answer:

1. My friend lives in a very poor and conflictive country. This place is stricken with violence, unemployment and overall social and economic crisis. He and his wife work but what they earn is not enough to support their family, not because they have a bad job but because the economy of the country is virtually destroyed and there's hyperinflation. They have an 8 year old daughter and a baby in the way. The Doctor told my friend and his wife that their baby would be born with special needs. My friend knows they won't be able to fulfill all the baby's needs in their current circumstance. Someone offers my friend a job in another country. He will make better money and will be able to better provide for his children, and keep his family safe; but he must leave right away. He won't be able to see the birth of his baby, or meet him in person: he knows he won't be able to see his family in person for years. He chooses to take the job, and leaves.

 

2. Courage, strength of character, generosity, determination, resilience.

 

3. Those virtues are to be shown because my friend must do what's best for his family, even at his own expense, and even though it will be hard for all of them.

 

4.

- He must be courageous to go alone to another country, without the people he loves the most.

 

- He must have strength of character to face the challenge, do the work and don't give up no matter how much he misses them.

 

- He must be generous to work hard to keep his family safe and healthy no matter how precarious his own situation turns.

 

- He must be resilient to accept that this is what he must do. The circumstances are tough, but he must be tougher.

 

The virtues should be expressed in this manner because it is what is required to face, endure and overcome the situation and the choice made in this moral dilemma.

 

5. Applying Aristotle's Golden Mean to this dilemma, we obtain the choice that my friend actually made, which is the better course of action given the circumstances: To leave, in order to help his family, but to make time even away to call them every morning, evening and night, even if it's just to say hello to them, remind them how much they mean and how much he loves them. To work hard to take care of them while still keeping himself healthy and as well rested as he can, for he knows that going to an extreme of not eating and not sleeping would be negative and counterproductive.

 

6. This dilemma involves a deep conflict of moral familial duties, but also a conflict between these duties and my friend's own desires:

 

- If he leaves he won't be with his family physically, which will be as difficult for them as it will be for him. Maybe even more difficult for him, because he will be alone in a foreign country.

 

- If he stays they will be together, but even thought they will have each other, the economic crisis will only escalate, and the future of the children will be in jeopardy.

Step-by-step explanation

This moral dilemma is taken from a real person.