13 year old boy : “maybe it would be good to put her out of her pain, she’d be better off that way. But the husband wouldn’t want it , it’s not like an animal. If a pet dies you can get along without it – it isn’t something you really need. Well, you can get a new wife, but it’s not really the same.”
16 year old boy : “no, he shouldn’t. the husband loves her and wants to see her. He couldn’t want her to die sooner, he loves her too much.”
16 year old boy : “ the doctor wouldn’t have the right to take a life, no human has the right. He can’t create life, he shouldn’t destroy it.”
To summarize, note that Kohlberg ‘s six stages represent a movement from lower levels of moral decision, where moral decisions are entangled with other value judgments and the rules are changed as the facts in the case change, to higher levels that separate moral values from other sorts and that utilize universal principles that apply to anyone in any situation. To illustrate this movement from the particular to the universal rule, consider three of the stages as they relate to value of life. At stage1 , only important is valued equally .