The Physicist and the Firefly
Moral Dilemma #8
Introduction:
Few of us are ever faced with making the sort of life or death decisions we routinely hear about in the news. And yet there are decisions we face everyday that—whether we realize it or not—have very real moral implications.
Part trivia game and part reality show, BustedHalo’s Moral Dilemmas feature is intended not only to raise moral issues for our readers but also to ask you to participate in resolving them. After reading the story below about Kiersten, Ian and Brenna please tell us what the “right thing to do” is via the quiz at the bottom. Next week we’ll offer a “wrinkle” to the dilemma and ask your opinion once again. Finally, we will have our own moral theologian weigh in with some analysis of the dilemma and your responses.
Click here to read The Wrinkle to our Dilemma.
Click here to read our expert’s analysis.
Ian and Kiersten met and began dating while they were completing their doctoral degrees in the Midwest, Kiersten in physics and Ian in chemistry. After graduating they got married and set about pursuing careers. Though they liked the world of academics and teaching they saw how relentlessly exhausting and unstable that life could be so they both agreed that the private sector would be a better path for them.
Kiersten quickly landed a very lucrative job at a large corporation that was heavily involved in research for the defense industry, while Ian found project-based contract work at the same company. It wasn’t a full-time position for him but it was interesting work and, since Kiersten was getting benefits, it was a good fit.
They both generally enjoyed their work and their colleagues and they decided to lay down roots in the community. They bought a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood with good schools. After a couple of years they had their first child, a baby girl named Brenna.
Firefly
Kiersten’s job responsibilities continued to grow after the baby came along but some of the projects that Ian had been working on were being phased out so the amount of work that was available to him started to dry up. Financially they were in good shape so they weren’t panicking but the career downturn was a real blow to Ian’s ego.
Around that time, Kiersten was chosen to work with a very select group of researchers on a new defense project called, “Firefly.” It was an enormous government contract for the company that would potentially add billions of dollars to the corporation’s bottom line.
Though she never considered herself a particularly political person, Kiersten wasn’t thrilled about the idea of helping to design and build weapon systems but she felt fortunate that during her career she had only worked on projects that were considered defense oriented. “Firefly” however was clearly intended to be used as an offensive first-strike strategy and while it was considered a huge step professionally and financially for her to be chosen, she wasn’t completely comfortable with it and after a few weeks working with her new team she decided to sit down with Ian and discuss it.
Fever
What’s The Right Thing To Do?
- Kiersten should quit the Firefly project and the corporation and try to find work she feels better about.
- She should ask to be moved to another project at the company that is more in line with her moral conscience.
- She should return to her original plan and ask Ian what he should do.
- Clearly Ian has bigger issues on his mind. Kiersten should realize that and stay with the job during this family crisis.
- This conflict will ultimately drive her to distraction and make her a less effective wife, mother, caregiver and co-worker. She needs to either quit her job or ask for a leave of absence until she can stabilize the situation with Ian.
None of these sound right to you? Want to qualify one of the above answers?What do you think Kiersten should do?
That evening she returned home to find Ian sick in bed with a fever and the chills. She decided to wait until he felt better before she broached the topic but as the week went on Ian’s sickness grew worse. He was still in his thirties and had always been healthy so Kiersten wasn’t too concerned, but when Ian started complaining about bone pain she decided they needed to consult a doctor just to be sure. After taking a series of tests, the couple was devastated to learn that Ian had leukemia.
The doctor assured them that it wasn’t hopeless but that they needed to be prepared for a very long—and potentially expensive—course of treatment. The sickness also meant that Ian wouldn’t be able to look after their three-year-old daughter Brenna so Kiersten would need to get help at home.
When she returned to work a week later Kiersten felt jarred by her contradictory feelings. On one hand she felt fortunate that her promotion at work would make the added financial burden of Ian’s sickness easier to bear. On the other hand she also felt strange about the fact that she and her husband were about to enter into this long, hard struggle just to stave off the leukemia and keep him alive and here she was helping to create a weapon system that was considered a first-strike option that could potentially kill tens of thousands of people.
Time for you to decide. What should Kiersten do now?
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