Day 2 - 285 -- Ethical Conundrums

Ethics has been the word of the day. The concepts ran through most of my activities. We covered some aspects in both courses -- in lecture and online discussions. Several discussions with research students focused on ethics of chosen research projects. Posing questions to help others look at a situation through different eyes can be challenging, but also can help others delve more deeply into moral reasoning -- sort of like 'deep couch sitting' for the mind <smile>.

In many ways, research involves promises to participants and to those reading the resultant report. Sometimes it would be easy to bypass one of the necessary protocols, but the ethics approval may help hold people to account. Even something as simple as citing a reference rather than passing off the idea as your own, fits into ethical decision making processes. Treating others with fairness, clearly stating any anticipated risks to participation, and accurately representing all the findings in the final report (and not simply cherry picking the 'good' results <smile>) -- all are necessary aspects of an ethics plan. Sadly, many of these items are ignored and not only by students, but by established researchers. That leaves a bad taste and further reduces confidence in all research by researchers and non-researchers alike.

A few lines from the selection today spoke to the grey zone that we live in. Ethics isn't always black and white since it involves our values and the values of others -- so hammering out a solution to a problem needs input from all sides. The singer/songwriter for the chosen song seemed well able to discuss such larger concepts. Enjoy!

Grey Cloudy Lies -- George Harrison