My biology teacher was lecturing us on the differences between children and adolescents. Everyone pointed out the obvious physical differences, but our teacher told us that the most important difference was in our brains. She told us to take the following example into account. A man's wife has a deadly disease. In order to save her life, she needs to take a medicine, which costs more than he can afford. He steals the medicine in the dead of night. If you caught him, and he told you his story, what would you do"

Pre-pubescent children all came to the same conclusion: stealing is wrong and he should be punished. But pubescent teens saw things differently. They acknowledged that stealing was wrong, but they also questioned the degree of immorality. Would it be more wrong to let your wife die or to steal to save her life? The physiological...