Right, Wrong or Indifferent?

Morals and ethics. What a sticky conversation. In class, we spoke about many different ethical dilemmas: research ethics, grading ethics, whistle-blowing, and cheating (to name a few). Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't see ethics as a right or wrong, black or white issue. I think mistakes can be made and people can make bad judgment but for the most part doesn't make them bad people. If a student cheats, do you report them, write them off for the entire class and regard them as a waste of space academically for the rest of the tenure at the University? Or, is there a teaching moment to be had. Don't get me wrong, I fully believe that there should be consequences to actions. All I'm saying is that in cases where the student is most likely hurting themselves (not physically, but academically) and is not a danger to society, it's better to address the problem, take whatever punitive actions are appropriate, allow the student to do better next time, and use it as a hypothetical (don't embarrass the student in class) teaching moment to the class to discuss actions and consequences. For example, talk about how cheating on a physics test doesn't hurt society, but if you then don't understand the concepts and design a faulty o-ring, you could be responsible for a tragic international space tragedy (i.e., Challenger). I think a zero tolerance stance on cheating is unproductive. Isn't school the place to make those mistakes? Shouldn't we encourage developmental, moral improvement? Now, if a student repetitively takes advantage and continuously cheats, then there needs to be an end game in sight. Repeat chosen failures should not equal a degree.

What about research ethics? Here the waters get a little murky. In most cases, we are now dealing with individual belief structures, personal ethics and gray area moral issues. For example, should animals be experimented on, tortured and sacrificed for the betterment of human advancement? Is it ok to tamper with embryo or fetus DNA in-vitro to prevent future diseases or is this a slippery slope to eugenics?

Clearly, not all ethics issues are black and white or can follow a "check list" of moral academic and research ethics. As educators, I think we have a responsibility to discuss difficult ethical dilemmas and design courses that are not conducive to cheating. We should not impose our moral/ethical research standards on our students. Rather, we should help them define their stance, articulate and defend their position, and be willing to engage in productive discourse with their colleagues. As such, in each course I design, there will be an ethics component where students must take a position, write a paper defending that position, and articulate orally their reasons for the position. They will not be judged on their position, but instead on their ability to take one. I hope this will help our students better prepare for difficult choices and decisions in the working world.