Final answer:
An ethical dilemma is a situation requiring a choice between options that each violate some ethical principle; it's often discussed in applied ethics, such as in cases of bioethics in healthcare.
Step-by-step explanation:
An ethical dilemma is a situation that requires choosing between two or more undesirable alternatives where every potential course of action breaches some ethical standard. While empirical data can inform debates about ethical issues, they often require input from multiple disciplines to resolve, including law, politics, and philosophy. Applied ethics attempts to resolve these issues through moral deliberation and the application of ethical principles and norms. A well-known area within applied ethics is bioethics, which deals with dilemmas in medicine and healthcare, such as questions of informed consent and the ethical implications of new medical technologies.