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Mark Watney: Ethical Dilemmas

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1. Recognize: Mark Watney is struck by debris on Mars, lost in the storm, and thought to be dead by his crewmates (one of which is the commander Melissa Lewis) based on the last recordings of his space suit. 2. Define: It is unethical to leave your (presumed) dead crewmate on an alien planet. Furthermore, it is unethical to leave your crewmate on an alien planet if there is incredibly slim chance of surviving? 3. Decide: Melissa Lewis and other correspondents involved with the mission is then forced to decide whether the ethical dimension of leaving Mark Watney is significant. It is important to look at what would make it significant: leaving his body without a proper burial? Leaving him without being sure he was dead? Or the ethical dimension that society, in general, would impose on the event and conclusively NASA and the government? In the end it is a culmination of all these three things that help them make their final decision. 4. …show more content…

Take personal responsibility: NASA and the government have to decide whether it is their personal responsibility to retrieve Mark Watney after finding out he was still alive as he went into it knowing that it was possible he would die on the mission and so did the other astronauts. Melissa Lewis also must decide, as the commander of the mission, whether it is her personal responsibility to retrieve him and prolong the time the crew spends in space and away from earth and their families. 5. Abstract Ethical Rules: NASA and the government must decide whether they can apply the rule of giving each person a proper burial? On the other hand, will a few words of remembrance be enough? This is an issue of societal norms as most societies bury their dead and feel it is extremely disrespectful to not do so. 6. Decide: How does the abstract ethical rule of those who serve the country, usually those in the armed forces, gets a proper burial to someone who is on another planet and will take decades to get to, let alone, bring back to

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