Lesotho is a small developing country contained within South Africa. You and your team of academic researchers (10 in all) are spending the next two weeks traveling to different communities throughout Lesotho to test water sources for disease-causing pathogens. The testing you need to do is simple but requires significant assistance from the community – showing your team all the different locations where individuals get their water from, and places/methods for storing the water. You do not see the need to pay the community members, considering if someone asked you about your water source, you would not mind driving them up to the lake! The ultimate goal of the project is to understand the lifecycle and characteristics of a specific pathogen, which is found only in this region of Lesotho. Several publications are expected from this research study. A comprehensive profile of this pathogen can help in many ways including the development of chemical additives to make the water safe to drink. Is it ethical to conduct this research study? What will you do next?
Step 1
There are, 10 researchers in Lesotho for 2 weeks, publications expected from the work but not by the researchers, community members not being paid, and there is a pathogen in multiple water sources in the country. There are multiple methods of collection/storage, there is a promise of solution chemically derived from the research of it is successful.
Some of the ethical issues we have identified are, not paying the helpers, if there is no solution it can not potentially improve quality of life, and some people own the water so permission is key.
Step 2
The stakeholders are:
- the community members
- the government
- the researchers
- the research funders
- the solution preparers
Step 3
The stakeholder’s motivation is as listed:
- the community members
- health
- the government (Lethoso and South Africa)
- political capital, economic growth
- the researchers
- a desire for success, meet research goals, income
- the research funders
- publications
- the solution preparers
- business
- HOPATWWF = helping out people around the world with fluoride
Step 4
Our solutions follow different ethical principles:
- utilitarian: pay them
- long term utilitarian: do research, pay community
- short term: government water truck
- pros: finishing research by any means necessary
- cons: if you get nothing you wasted resources
- duty-based: don’t pay them
- long term: do research, don’t pay
- short term: might be hard to convince people to help
- pros: work comes from the goodness in people’s heart and is free
- cons: might be challenging to convince people to help
- virtue-based: do it yourself or don’t do it
- long term: if you can do it yourself then do it, if not, then don’t
- short term: work to find ways to accomplish research
- pros: No effect on other stakeholders
- cons: Lower chances the research will be accurate and accomplished
Step 5
- We asked Khanjan about what he would do, and he said that he would pay them
Step 6
The course of action I would choose is the consequential approach of paying the community for help. You can always just budget that cost into your expense report. I feel that it is more important to conduct the research efficiently and accurately than it is to save the small sum of money required to do some. If one’s priorities are rooted solely in the quality of the research, or the “end result” than it is obvious that the best choice. While the other options may seem more ethical since they come from a sense of duty or not wanting to impose any negative effect, the option that has the best potential at providing the most good, is paying the community members.
Step 7
Our impact:
The work we do in Lesotho would add some money into local villages money stream and could disrupt the market there, so we will be sure to only pay the regular hourly wage. Our research has the potential to save drinking water for an entire country and all of South Africa as well since they get their water from Lesotho. This research could also lead to new papers which could be used to make a profit and maybe even reinvest into the project.