El Orfanato

Today the class has each been given their own personal moral dillema to ponder and discuss in our blogs. The one I am given reads as such and gives me countless opportunities to reference the fantastic Spanish suspense movie The Orphanage: I run an orphanage (hopefully with no spooky, deformed, burlap sack-headed children residing within) and have had a hard time making ends meet. A car dealership offers me a new van worth $15,000 for free if I will falsely report to the government that the dealership donated a van worth $30,000. I really need the van and it will give me an opportunity to make the children happy (So they don't come back from the dead and steal my adopted HIV Positive son). Do I agree to take the van?

Spanish film references aside (Go rent The Orphanage, it is amazing), My first insticts point me rather fervently in the direction of taking the van and lying to the government. This option has a great deal of advantages, being that I save a rather large sum of money, I can drive the childrens to the soup kitchen and second-hand clothes stores so that they will not have to walk jacketless in the cold, and the car dealership gains public approval. The downsides only occur if they government catches on to our ingenious scheme, but honestly, the price of cars decreases so rapidly, a $30,000 van today could easily be a $15,000 van tomorrow.

While this is the choice I most likely would make, it contradicts what one should do. One should not lie to one's government in order to gain benefit, as the consequences for this could be disastrous. However, I would risk it for the sake of my orphans, as I feel doing all I can to give them happiness is more important to me than being fully truthful with my government (especially since the Conservatives are back in).