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Online Ethics Center: Commentary on "The Lisa Bach Case"Commentary on "The Lisa Bach Case"P. Aarne VesilindDuke UniversityI find it difficult to see any extenuating circumstances or excuses for Dr. Richard Bell's actions. Histenure situation, future funding or whatever is simply irrelevant. He stole intellectual property from acolleague. To make it worse, this colleague is in an uneven power situation and cannot respond as anequal. This fact makes Bell's actions even more reprehensible.More importantly, what should Lisa do? Any action she might take could hurt Bell, and, of course, Bellknows that. His reluctance to bring her into the publishing process clearly shows that he knows that he isdoing something underhanded, and that Lisa could prove her case. He and Lisa both know, however, thatBell can easily ruin Lisa's career in retaliation.What should Lisa do? She has several alternatives.1. She could write to the editor of the journal, explaining what happened. Depending on the editor'sintegrity, the paper may be withdrawn or an addendum published in a subsequent issue, causinggreat harm to Bell's standing in the community. Or the editor may consider this matter an issue forthe authors to sort out.2. Lisa could go to the chair of the department or the dean. This person, of course, will try to get tothe bottom of the issue, call Bell in for a chat and even have a three-way conversation. Lisa willhave to prove that the discovery was indeed hers and that she has been wronged. Typically,faculty will support each other, and she will be cast as the infamous "disgruntled employee,"unless she can prove without a doubt that Bell has misrepresented himself and the chair or deanhas the moral fibre to respond appropriately. The chair or dean will look for some easy way to endthe controversy and may, for example, ask Bell to write a letter of apology to Lisa.3. Lisa could seek a new position, even in a different laboratory in the same university, and simplyavoid all future contact with Bell.In a way, the choices boil down to deontological vs. consequentialist options. If Lisa keeps quiet, Bellcould go on mistreating other graduate students and post-docs. His actions are simply unethical. Theprinciple here is what is important, not the outcome, and Lisa should choose Option 1 or Option 2, orboth.If Lisa were my daughter, however, I would strongly recommend the third alternative to her. Theincremental good Bell received from publishing the purloined paper is small compared to the harm Lisahttp://onlineethics.org/reseth/appe/vol1/lisa-c1.html (1 of 2) [10/13/2004 1:31:25 PM]
Online Ethics Center: Commentary on "The Lisa Bach Case"would suffer if she took any action to redress the situation. If she chose to fight, she would still have toleave Bell's laboratory. Whatever the choice or the outcome, the mentor/protegee relationship has foreverbeen damaged. Bell will never be able to write a letter of recommendation without thinking of theincident, and Lisa will never be able to call on him for support in her career. She should take heart in theknowledge that sooner or later, "Time wounds all heels."COMMENTARIESThe Lisa Bach CaseGraduate Research Ethics: Cases and Commentaries Indexhttp://onlineethics.org/reseth/appe/vol1/lisa-c1.html (2 of 2) [10/13/2004 1:31:25 PM]
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