Journal

Page 431 in your textbook describes Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development. Kohlberg used “The Heinz Dilemma” to assess moral development. “The Heinz Dilemma” is described below.

Heinz Steals the Drug

“In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. 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 10 times what the drug cost him to make. 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 am going to make money from it.” So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that?” (Kohlberg, 1963).

1. One child answers that Heinz was definitely wrong because he broke the rules.
2. Another child answers that Heinz did the right thing because he was saving his wife’s life.

Which reaction would be expected if the child is age 6 and why?

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