What is the difference between getting inspiration from, and plagiarizing, someone else? Can industry standard behavior, none-the-less, be unethical behavior? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Evan is a graphic designer. Evan finds out he won a gold medal award at the yearly ad industry awards for one of his designs. The problem is, he lifted the exact design from an Australian ad that was 20+ years old. To be fair, the copied ad was one of three options he gave the client, and the other two were original works. Afterwards, the client so loved the copied design he insisted that Evan make no future changes. Furthermore, Evan withdrew his ad from contest consideration, but the client resubmitted it on his behalf without his knowledge. His firm acknowledges that, “everybody does it” from time-to-time and his actions were only “technically…unethical behavior.” Regardless, when the client finds out, the client insists that Evan be terminated even though he loves the ad and (because it was copied) saved money on the hourly rate. Given the choice between an employee and a profitable client, the firm terminates Evan.

If all options were possible, what policy changes would make voting, and democracy, work better? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator lives in a world where all public political affiliations are illegal leading up to, and shortly after, their every-ten-year elections. No colors, no symbols, and no public speech so as to limit political misinformation and post-election turmoil. Additionally, everyone is required to vote, unless they are granted a government exemption. This is meant to create a more stable democracy. The narrator’s party ends up winning the election. At the end of the story, the evil side of this “improved” democracy shows itself; those that lose the election are summarily rounded up and killed by the government.

How do you determine who gets medical treatment? What is the basis by which to determine who gets medical treatment? In this work of medical ethics short story fiction, Libby works as a salesperson at the Phoenix Rejuvenative Sciences Center. The medical center provides bionic organ transplants for the rich. However, their most important product is Fenixir, nontechnology bots that attack damaged and diseased cells. Using this technology, aging can be severely slowed, cancer can be halted, and organ damage can be repaired. Libby’s daughter, Anna, is suffering from glioblastoma multiforme. Treatment isn’t working and she is likely to die. Anna decides to steal Fenixir from the medical center and give it to Anna to save her life. The procedure is successful, but Anna is caught by the company and forced to strike a bargain to keep from being prosecuted for her crime.

What does it mean to be alive? How do you know if violence is ever okay? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the male owner has purchased a female service android for his house. She talks, she has sex, and she serves her male owner in every way. Over time, her male owner becomes more aggressive and more violent towards the android woman. He punches her and, later, rips her arm off and beats her with it for incorrectly mixing his nightly drink. He takes the android to Joe, the local android repair person. Joe repairs and reprograms the android woman so that, the next time she is attacked, she fights back and kills her owner.

Does empathy and moral choice only require that we better understand things from the perspective of others? What if we could force criminals to get that better understanding? In this work of nature-of-punishment short story fiction, Rat has been sentenced to a government “brainwashing” facility. He regrets nothing, save having been caught. He comes from the mean streets, and sometimes that means doing horrible things to get by. As part of his punishment, the government forces him to live his criminal experiences three times. First, from his own perspective. Next, from the perspective of the person the crime was committed against. And finally, from a meta view that allows him to see how his actions, and the actions of others, fit into the larger repeating cycles, in the city. Rat emerges from the program with a new perspective and is ready to begin assisting the program with cleaning up the city.

Do the ends justify the means? Is bribery and corruption acceptable if, at the end of the day, it serves the greater good? In this work of philosophical short fiction, Reverend Clarence Washington has been the senior pastor for nearly forty years at Gethsemane Baptist Church in New Orleans. Post hurricane Katrina is he working hard to get his church, and the surrounding area, improved so he can better serve his congregation and the community. Clarence is called by the mayor because there was a mugging in his ward just a few nights earlier. This scares the bankers who are putting up the necessary building loans. Clarence goes to the local gangs and pays them to keep the streets safe for visiting tourists and white people. To smooth things over he crates a multi-congregational coalition in support of the project. The mayor visits Clarence and tells him the budget for the renovations will need to be cut, there simply isn’t enough money for everything he wants. Of course, there are “overhead expenses” for the mayor’s campaign. Clarence’s wife is also on salary from Clarence’s church. Seems corruption goes both ways. In retaliation, Clarence calls the FBI to tell them about what’s been going on in the mayor’s office.

How do you decide which species get to thrive, and which should die off? In this work of philosophical short science-fiction, the archeologists of the planet have uncovered a hidden chamber. In it, they have found a small group of “ancient” people in hibernation. They decide to free one of them so they can learn more about their culture, and decipher the hieroglyphics all around the chambers. What emerges is a huge surprise; a talking, intelligent, female cow. A cow that is the intelligent version of the very animals his people eat. She calls herself, “human.” Over the weeks, the archeologist learns the basics of her language to communicate. It seems her people lived hundreds of generations ago, but were stricken with a disease that was killing off the world population, she is dying of it too. They went into hibernation. The archaeologist shows the human that today humans exist, but they are treating like livestock and lack her level of intelligence. It turns out there was a mutation that allowed humans to survive, but that same mutation gave them the intelligence of beasts. Working together, they realize they could cure their livestock humans, but this would cause the new dominant intelligent species on the planet to die off. They decide it is better to put her back into hibernation.