A natural disaster destroys an entire area of a city.  The residents of the area are left homeless and without transportation, and without the necessary food and water to survive until infrastructure can be rebuilt.  Furthermore, the country does not have adequate public or international aid to provide fo

A natural disaster destroys an entire area of a city.  The residents of the area are left homeless and without transportation, and without the necessary food and water to survive until infrastructure can be rebuilt.  Furthermore, the country does not have adequate public or international aid to provide for the displaced residents.  Aid organizations have promised to have food and water to residents within the week, but it is unclear how quickly and safe it will be to get the aid to those in need.

Among this population there is a single mother, Sarah, who has two young children.  After several days, her children are showing signs of dehydration and hunger.  They are in desperate need of clean water and food.

In a nearby area there is a supermarket owned by a wealthy family, the Jacksons.  Sarah knows this family from years of shopping at their store.  The Jacksons have decided to close the store to prevent thefts because they know that they will not be able to contribute much to the rebuilding effort if they face huge losses of inventory and income.  Sarah is aware that the Jacksons will want to help the community but that they will be unable to do so if their store is looted.  There are no other supermarkets in the area that survived the disaster and other resources cannot be gathered because they are unsafe to consume.

A group of residents is organizing to break into the supermarket to steal food and water.  They will only steal what is necessary to survive.

Choose three ethical theories that we have covered in this class. For each of the three theories that you choose, describe the way that the theory would have Sarah act in this situation (would she steal or not steal?), provide citations from our reading and supporting evidence for your claim.

Lastly, what would you do?  Based on your decision, which ethical theory would you be following?  Provide citations from our reading and supporting evidence for your claim.