Silence Isn’t Always Golden

Emma is graduating from high school this year, and has just sent in her acceptance letter to attend college. She is an aspiring scientist, and she is extremely dedicated to her work; however, she also feels very committed to her friendships. The sense of responsibility that she feels toward her friends was tested during her senior year when her friends got into serious trouble for hacking into the high school computer system. Emma knew what her friends were doing, and she never said or did anything about it because she didn’t want to “rat” on them. As a scientist, Emma also feels strongly that withholding information can have disastrous effects, and she feels that it “violates the entire reason for doing research.” Emma seems to have different standards for her personal life and “professional” work.

Emma is graduating from high school this year and has just sent her acceptance letter to college. An aspiring scientist, Emma’s interest stems at least in part from her father, who is a research scientist, and from “being in a household where science is emphasized as opposed to other things.” Emma remembers her father bringing her to his laboratory when she was seven and remembers looking through the scientific publications she found around the house. 

Since then, she has worked in a local laboratory, and has continued to work on several projects, some of which have been awarded prizes at local and national science fairs. Emma is extremely dedicated to her scientific work, as well as a few clubs and organizations at school, one of which she started on her own because of her interest in and commitment to conservation issues

Emma describes running exciting procedures in the laboratory and loving when all the tests “come together,” but she also describes long hours and difficulty in balancing life as a high school senior with life as an academic researcher. She explains: 

“In the laboratory, it was just amazing to see everything come together, and it’s just like ‘Wow, I can’t believe that worked!’ I can’t believe all that stuff in my textbook is really true, or at least some of it. So, that’s my favorite part, and my least favorite part was all the time research took away from me being a normal kid spending time with my friends those summers.” 

Last summer, for these reasons, Emma tried to find more balance between working and spending personal time with friends. She divided the summer months into “a fun half and a work half.” She spent time with friends for the first half of the summer and worked for the remainder of the summer. After a tough few weeks of work, starting school in September was a “welcome relief.”

Emma’s beliefs and values were tested during her senior year. Though she espoused values of honesty, truthfulness, and meticulousness in her scientific work, her ideals are not as clear when it comes to helping her friends. Emma explains some trouble she and her friends caused in school: 

“My friends got into trouble for hacking into the computer system at the high school, and I knew they were doing it, and I never said anything or did anything. Even though [I] was asked, I just said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on.’ They didn’t actually mess anything up, but they did stuff that got them in a lot worse trouble. If I had said something in the beginning, my friend would not have gotten in trouble and been suspended for ten days. It was wrong of me.”

Although Emma did not want to “rat” on her friends, she shares great concern as a scientist that withholding information from the scientific community can “puts the lives of patients in danger, because the sooner the scientific community knows of a problem, the sooner follow ups can be made.” She explains further, “I think that [withholding information] violates the entire reason for doing research, respect for learning, and increasing understanding. [Science] is supposed to be a forum for releasing the information.” 

Emma realizes that she can also get into trouble with less serious pranks at school: “One time I stole a banner from [a nearby town’s] cross-country [team] and some kid’s mother made the banner. We gave it back, but my coach was really upset and I was off the team for a bit.” 

While she is conflicted about these various ethically questionable actions, Emma is articulate as she explains her concern about the ethics (or lack thereof) of scientists doing academic work in the future: 

“There’s going to continue to be problems that science unleashes, and we have to remember that the discoveries, the things we find, are just tools that we can use. It’s the people that will bring about the good things and the bad things. I see biotechnology moving forward very quickly, and I think we have to be careful of big business because the financial incentives can corrupt people. If the research becomes solely oriented on financial gain, we might lose sight of learning in general.”

As Emma begins her college career, she will be faced with more challenges, more conflicts, and greater responsibilities.

What are Emma’s commitments as a friend? What are her commitments as a scientist? How are her commitments similar and different? Reflect on two areas of your life where you have different commitments. Why are your standards or commitments different in different areas?