The Ethicist part two
The mere mention of "abortion" gets folks stirred up in both directions. My last post was about Giuliani but it quickly turned into a discussion on abortion. Meanwhile the NY Times posted this article on their site. It's a hard article to read but it is worth your time.
In sum, there are programs around the country that help parents who are told their unborn babies will die upon birth. These programs help parents make sense of their options and how to go about the pregnancy. The two sets of parents highlighted for the article are pro-choice advocates who decided to give birth to their babies. The article is heart-wrenching but makes it painstakingly clear that the decision to abort or give birth to a fatally ill child is not a question of wrong or right/black or white. Framing the issue in those terms is to speak foolishly and simplistically.
------------------------------------------------
You might remember that I told you of my love for the article in the NY Times Magazine called The Ethicist by Randy Cohen. Recently, I was surprised by his response to the following ethical dilemma:
I interview high-school seniors who apply to my alma-mater. I routinely Google these students and discovered that one posted information on his blog that reflects poorly of him. May I ask him about the blog? May I mention it to the university? Should it affect the score I give him?
Without looking at Randy Cohen's answer online, how would you respond to this person's query?
-
In sum, there are programs around the country that help parents who are told their unborn babies will die upon birth. These programs help parents make sense of their options and how to go about the pregnancy. The two sets of parents highlighted for the article are pro-choice advocates who decided to give birth to their babies. The article is heart-wrenching but makes it painstakingly clear that the decision to abort or give birth to a fatally ill child is not a question of wrong or right/black or white. Framing the issue in those terms is to speak foolishly and simplistically.
------------------------------------------------
You might remember that I told you of my love for the article in the NY Times Magazine called The Ethicist by Randy Cohen. Recently, I was surprised by his response to the following ethical dilemma:
I interview high-school seniors who apply to my alma-mater. I routinely Google these students and discovered that one posted information on his blog that reflects poorly of him. May I ask him about the blog? May I mention it to the university? Should it affect the score I give him?
Without looking at Randy Cohen's answer online, how would you respond to this person's query?
-
posted by jch at
10:02 AM
8 Comments:
Joe, thanks for the link to the NY Times article.
I don't know about the ethics of blogs: but I'd be much comforted if Cohen's answer is that blogs don't reflect on bloggers academically/professionally...then I could stop worrying about the fact that certain people at certain institutions claim to read mine...
I don't know if I'd agree that abortion doesn't come down to wrong or right as much as I'd concede that the issue is complicated. In other words, I would agree that a 16 year old single mom whose baby may be ill is intensely complicated, but not that those complications keep there from being a right or wrong choice in the matter of abortion. Anyone who simply tells the girl "just have the baby" and nothing more is being simplistic, but that isn't the same as saying "have the baby" and then helping her through said complications.
to the answer of the ethics of blogs i would say: yes, maybe, maybe. and in that order. if you're interviewing the kid anyway, let him now that yo came across his or her blog and what you thought about it. blogs are public for a reason, this kid shouldn't be surprised that someone read it. ask questions. discuss. this discussion should be seen as an extension of the interview and should effect the score as any interview would.
should you report this student to the school or allow it to effect the score, without having spoken to the student? no.
Re: the blog question. If I were the interviewer I would ask the student about the blog entry in question and decide where to go from there. There are so many things that could factor in to this. Even though I have an unusual name, someone out there is using it for online role playing games. I would hate for some interviewer to assume that is me without even checking with me. Even if the item were definitely mine the interviewer should always keep in mind that people are evolving and everyone says hasty things on a bad day. I know someone who had something she said posted online. She didn't know it was going to end up there and it was something like 12 years ago. I guess the possibility of our kids getting screwed over by an interviewer using Google because we gave them an uncommon name is just one more worry to add to a parent's naming decision.
The simple fact: Potential employers and institution of higher education admissions boards are looking at high school and college students' blogs, Facebook and Myspace accounts.
Interviewers probably shouldn't ask the student about the content - but potential employers (more so than admissions boards) should feel free to look.
At universities across the country, officials are warning students that potential employers are reading applicants' online journals. Students should simply assume that's the case these days.
Should students' blogs influence potential employers? Whether they want it to or not, they do. Students should consider this before they post public online journals.
Update: I read Cohen's thoughts after typing my thoughts, and I mostly disagree with him (obviously)!
Without peeking at what the professional ethicist says, I probably WOULD let someone's *online, public* writings, photography, and opinions influence their score.
If an interviewee accidentally left their private diary in my office after an interview, there is NO WAY I would crack it open and take a peek. (In fact, I never opened my grown daughter's diary. Not once...but after hearing some of her post-high school confessions, maybe I should have!)
If my nosy (and highly unethical) secretary peeked and told me that the interviewee and his friends regularly shoplift, it would be very hard not to influence his score...but I would REALLY TRY because it was ill-gotten information, like a pre-Miranda interrogation.
If, however, the interviewee journals online for the WORLD to see, this is the equivalent of publishing a column, IMHO. To ignore the applicant's online web sites and/or social networking sites doesn't make any sense.
When I first read your question, I thought I probably would NOT mention that I'd been reviewing the interviewee's Flickr, MySpace, LiveJournal, whatever sites...but after reading indie's comment, I believe that it's only fair to let the student know that Spring Break hijinx and/or volunteer work had been seen by the world...including the person who will be assessing a score to his/her portfolio.
Now I'm gonna' go read what the ethicist has to say!
I think the interviewer is entitled to use that information in making a decision. If they share it with the school, I feel it should be within the same context they share any of the information they gather. I would imagine the school admissions board really wants to hear the basics and not a lot of details or they wouldn't use alumni interviewers this way.
I also think the potential student is entitled to know that information was used in helping to make a decision about their enrollment. They have chosen to openly publish on the internet, so the interviewer should be open about reading it on the internet.
I would hope that the interviewer (since they make it a habit to check these kinds of things) has a balanced perspective of blogging/facebooking, in general. These types of online publishing and information communities are mostly free-form and authentic (of course there are exceptions), so the potential student may be very honest and candid in that environment. That kind of honesty would give indications of extreme behaviors because a blog-reader only gets to see the snapshots of life shared. . .not always the connecting points between those moments. That's a big factor in how you "judge" someone based on their online journaling.
the article on the abortion/perinatal hospice was very powerful.
we were recently very surprised to learn that after years of infertility, and adopting two great kids, that i was pregnant...and 6 1/2 months along, at that!
now had we found out that something was fatally wrong with the baby, while that would have been devastating, i too, would choice to continue on with the pregnancy, and let God be in control of the rest.
i thought that was very profound when one of the parents said that God doesn't always work in the 'make it all better' way, but he will definitely send people to you to help you through the struggle. how true.
~~~~~~~~~
about the ethical issue: i believe that the blog is fair game. i believe whatever you choose to share on the internet for anyone to read, you're making the choice to have that forever available for ANYONE to read, and that includes admissions boards as well.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home