Dilemmas with Sensitive Topics

Condensed versions of dilemmas are printed below. Longer versions are accessible using the “Learn More” buttons

The Right to say no

Sophia is eighteen years old and about to graduate from a high school for the performing arts. Sophia has always loved performing, but theater became a deep passion for her during her high school career. However, a couple years ago, she encountered a difficult situation related to her chosen line of work. Because her parents do not subsidize her acting, Sophia wanted a paying acting job. After mailing out her headshots and resumes, she eventually landed a role in an independent film that she did not know much about. As part of her role in the film, Sophia was asked to do something sexual that made her very uncomfortable, and that she felt was wrong; however, she did not know what the consequences of saying “no” would be. For two years after this experience, Sophia stopped looking for any acting work outside of school.

Mentorship at a distance

Noah is an environmental virologist and an Albert Schweitzer Fellow. For the duration of his Schweitzer fellowship, Noah has worked on a music program at a school that serves students with “extreme” behaviors. When his father died of a heart attack, during Noah’s adolescence, Noah was unable to deal with the loss in a healthy way. He became dependent on drugs, and frequently became “side-tracked” during his college years. In part because his father was a helpful and important role model for him, he tries to provide healthy and positive mentorship for the students at the school. Noah also explains how Albert Schweitzer, the humanitarian in whose honor the Schweitzer Fellowship was established, has served as an important mentor and role model for him. Noah believes that we can follow Schweitzer’s example in order to “change the world for good.” 

drama drama

Beth is the director of a repertory theater and teaches at a school of drama. While Beth feels that collaborations in theater are most often wonderfully exciting and generative, she has experienced some that are chronically bad and some that have reached a critical point at which she has asked an actor to leave the play. She remembers casting an actress who turned out to be a non-functioning alcoholic, and she realized soon after rehearsals started that the actress had to be fired. However, she said that she felt “a terrible sense of responsibility to this woman,” and she wondered if she might be precipitating a crisis in the actress’s life by letting her go. Beth nonetheless maintains that there “was no question that this was the right course of action.”

camera shy

Julie is a junior in high school who is very committed to theater. Julie, like many of her friends, is self-conscious about her appearance. She has noticed that one friend in particular is struggling with an eating disorder, which concerns Julie. When Julie served as a counselor at an all-girls summer camp, she was struck by how comfortable all of the campers looked in the photos. It sort of “hit” her that she had not seen pictures of herself or her friends looking un-self-conscious in a long time, and she says she is sick of feeling insecure and watching her friends struggle with the same issues. Her experience at the camp helped her to realize that she wants to use theater to help young women be successful and to feel empowered.

A believer in bolivia

Patrick is a young medical resident who is “passionate” about his work. After his sister died of leukemia during his senior year in college, Patrick became a Christian in order “to find meaning in life,” and he now feels deep ties to Christianity. Patrick has long been concerned with issues of social injustice, and he sees becoming a doctor as his way of helping the poor. After completing his formal medical training, he wants to establish his own orphanage in Bolivia, where he has worked with children before. Patrick’s very strict moral and ethical standards for himself and his work are visible. He makes decisions according to his understandings of right and wrong, and understandings based on his Christian beliefs. Because of these beliefs, Patrick refers patients to his colleagues if there is an issue that is in conflict with his values. He does not care if he gets a “bad rap” or a “bad mark” as a resident. 

the diagnosis dilemma

Thomas is a genome scientist and geneticist at a pharmaceutical company. He works on identifying gene targets for drug development. When Thomas was finishing up the last couple of months of his residency during medical school, he was asked by his favorite doctor, someone he viewed as a mentor, to assist with his private practice patients. One night soon after Thomas started this work, one of Thomas’s professors was brought into the hospital in the middle of the night in a deep coma after having attempted suicide. Fortunately, Thomas and his mentor were successful in saving the professor’s life. However, when Thomas’s mentor looked over the notes on the case, he said that Thomas had “missed the diagnosis,” and that the patient had been brought to the hospital due to “an acute asthmatic attack.” Thomas quickly realized that he was being asked to help cover up a suicide attempt. Although he followed his mentor’s directions and changed the diagnosis in the patient’s file, he did not feel at all comfortable about the situation. 

Serving a cause vs. serving a client

Since childhood, Susan has known that she would become a defense lawyer. She wants to fight powerful people who abuse others, and she works actively to help government and democracy in general work effectively. Once, when Susan was representing two individuals on death row and lost the capital trial in state court, Susan and her fellow defense lawyers had to decide whether to file an appeal. A group of civil libertarians with whom she had been working urged her to wait five years because filing an appeal was likely to set back the statewide fight against the death penalty for a number of years. However, both of Susan’s clients were scheduled to be executed within that time, so Susan chose to appeal the decision, thus saving her clients’ lives.