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 ten times what the drug cost him to produce. 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'm 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 Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?
As in childhood, moral understanding in adolescence is fostered by warm parenting and discussion of moral concerns. Teenages who gain most in moral development have parents who tell stories with moral implications, engage in moral discussions, encourage prosocial behavior, and create a supportive atmosphere by listening sensitively, asking clarifying questions and presenting higher-level reasoning. In contrast, parents who lecture, use threats or make sarcastic remarks have youngsters who change little or not at all. In sum, parents facilitate moral reasoning by using an authoritative approach that is affectionate, rational, respectful and cooperative.