Is it okay to cheat?

An article from ScienceDaily caught my attention today. The article speaks about situations in which it is morally okay to cheat, lie, or forge signatures--particularly concerning high schoolers. According to the article, sometimes children lie because it will give them a higher rating of approval from their peers. The author used the example of Thomas, who takes the fall for breaking a chair and prevents the class as a whole from being punished. Although he lied about breaking the chair, he is praised by and looked up to by his peers (University of Zurich, 2012). The article also spoke about how pupils expect scrutiny from their teachers, and they behave inappropriately when the teachers fail to live up to their expectations. Here, the article provides the example of a teacher giving her attention elsewhere during an examination, rather than on the students. As far as the children are concerned, "If Miss can't be bothered to check, that's her problem; it's open season for cheating" (University of Zurich, 2012).

Taken from http://www.owensworld.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Fullsize/pictures/expert-cheating.jpg

Part of the article caused me to question what constitutes as lying. If an individual does not ask for certain information and that information is withheld from him or her, is that lying? I finally concluded that the answer to that question, as the children in the article have, is no. It is not lying to withhold information from someone who has not asked for that particular information. However, it may be unethical to withhold that information if knowledge of the information may benefit the individual of interest in some way. As either a nurse or a doctor, there are situations that sometimes arise when results of a blood test arrive. For example, there are times that patients are HIV positive and have AIDS, but their spouse or loved ones do not know. They do not come asking the doctors because they do not suspect their loved ones have the disease, and if the patient with AIDS does not want his or her doctor to disclose it with the family, the doctor cannot. Here, the doctor does not lie to the patient's friends or family, because they have not asked. If the loved ones ever were to ask, however, it would be wrong for the doctor to state that the patient was negative. Instead, the doctor can let the family and friends know that he is not allowed to reveal that information, and could possibly suggest they ask the patients themselves.

There are a lot of touchy areas in medicine that have shades of grey in between. But as a doctor or nurse, what is morally and ethically right is based first for the benefit of the patient, just as for the school children, what is morally and ethically right is based on social settings and cues.



Reference:
University of Zurich (2012, June 28). Sometimes, cheating is allowed, study suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 29, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2012/06/120628145622.htm