Something I started thinking about is if it is ever ethical to disclose something that one person said to you to another. An example is if a friend tells you something that is a secret, tells you not to say anything, and then you tell it to someone you trust and tell everything to. I think it's hard because if you have someone that you really tell everything to, is it okay to keep things from them? It's tough and there is a lot of grey area, I feel. There are a lot of ethical issues like this in our lives. Just something to think about.
Mackenzie
Secrets are strange, because half the fun is keeping it but the other half is sharing other people's secrets. It's all a matter of trust.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, sometimes violating the rule of secrecy can be the right thing. For (a rather dark but relevant) example, if a friend confides to you they are depressed and want to die, you should let a trustworthy authority figure know immediately. Or, as Mork said, if you do an ethnography and someone is doing something illegal, you should let somebody know. And yes, some things are meant to be kept to oneself.