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   So·phie's choice

   noun

   • 1. used in reference to a difficult situation in which a person must choose between two equally deserving alternatives: "for environmentalists, it's something of a Sophie's choice: do we want clean, smog-free air at the local level or lower greenhouse gas emissions at the global level?"

   Word Origin with allusion to the 1979 novel Sophie's Choice by William Styron (1925–2006), in which a mother arriving at the Auschwitz concentration camp is forced to choose which of her two children is to be killed; failure to make a choice will result in the death of both children.

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