Ethical Dilemma Research Paper

Ethical Dilemma
The title of the article I am discussing is “Can a Woman Pretend to Be a Lesbian to Get a
Couples’ discount.” This article is from a woman whose local pool offered membership
discounts to couples, defined as “significant others living together,” and families. She is married
to a man and wanted to join the pool, but her husband was not interested in doing so. So, she and
a female friend joined as a “couple” to receive the discount. Of course, on the application they
stated they lived together and were “partners.” One of her colleagues told her that her action was
wrong because her and her friend posed as a lesbian couple. She posted her story to ask the
question was her action unethical.
The ethical frame I would use in this

case would be Kant’s idea that it cannot be
universalized. What she and her friend did cannot be universalized and so therefore is ethically
wrong. If every person, man or woman, decided to “couple up” for the sake of discounts, then
there would not be a need to have exclusive discounts for such people. I do not think her actions
harm the LGBT community in any way because like she stated, the discount is not exclusively
for members of the LGBT community; it was for couples and families, which clearly her and her
friend were not. Now, if the discount was exclusively offered to member of the LGBT
community then yes, what they did, claiming to be lesbian partners, would be unethical and
harmful toward the community. I, myself, am part of the LGBT community and was not
offended by her claiming to be such, but as someone who is in a relationship and living with my
partner, that is where I find her guilty of being unethical.
On the other hand, if I was not in a relationship and I went some place where discounts
were offered to people in a living-together relationship, I would be tempted to do as she had
done. Everyone, in my opinion, is guilty of wanting things that they are not necessarily qualified
to have, being discounts or other things. So, from just a person point of view, putting aside my
actual qualifications, I would have done the same thing and been fine with being unethical.