It's fascinating isn't it?
The Holodomor saw families eating their babies to try and help their other children survive (sadly we see similar contemporary issues in Afghanistan where young girls are sold off to be married to old men so that mothers can afford to feed their other children).
There's also accounts I've read from holocaust survivors about how one of the psychological impacts was many did things which resulted in others suffering in some way. Even simple things like stealing food from friends or even accepting food from a friend whilst hiding and not sharing their own. A lot of this remained unspoken but haunted survivors. There were, of course, also much worse acts.
Then there's very recent news about Syria and what people did as part of torture (raping other prisoners knowing if they didn't they would be tortured or killed for example).
Surviving generally in such extremes shows up the extent to which moral values ultimately become luxuries that may cost you your life.
I think we live in a world where we are so far removed from the sheer awfulness of humanity.
I'd like to think I'd retain my values, but I just don't know.
Me and my friends have jokingly got a 'zombie apocalypse plan'. We've given the subject thought, but underneath the surface there is also an understanding of what the reality of a sudden collapse in society would involve, and how you would survive.
If you have given it any thoughts at all, it very quickly goes from joking about prepping. Then you think about how quickly looting would start and there's a breakdown in law and order. Who could you trust and rely on? Where do they live? Could you get to them easily and safely? And then you start to think about the longer term stuff. Do you know how to survive? What skills do you have? What knowledge do you have? If you are seen to be surviving, how many people can you help support without risking the safety of your closest and actually the safety of the group as a whole (reasonably do you have to limit your group in some way because you can't support certain people who don't offer anything to the group - such as the very old or very young - but are another mouth to feed?). Just how long could you last without the supermarkets opening before you considered stealing food? Do you know how and what you can forage safely? How do you eat it? Does it need to be cooked? If you need to cook it, how do you do that quickly without attracting others attention? How many people can foragable food in your area support? If someone was trying to break in and steal what you had, how far would you go to defend your family?
It's incredibly bleak.
As I say, in this scenario, I think there would be a period of all out anarchy where morals and ethics definitely would be abandoned far more quickly than people are willing to believe and this is a really uncomfortable truth. Humans are selfish. They are tribal. The choice to protect your own over others will always come up at some point.
It would only be if you somehow on your wits, by luck and by virtue of picking the right allies you survived to the next stage where the situation stabilised that you'd really be able to say about your morals.
Anyone who says differently isn't honest and/or is exceptionally naive. And certainly hasn't really thought about the massive plot holes in zombie movies.
Worries about dentistry and food poisoning really wouldn't make it much past month two I suspect...