Real-Life Decision Making -- Solution
You say nothing to the committee and arrange to import the fungus.
You think to yourself, "If I present the issue to my colleagues, there will be a big delay in importing the fungus. My research will be delayed and I won't finish on schedule. This will increase my costs and will put me over budget.
"The chances that this fungus will be harmful are very slight. After all, it is not likely that it will ever move outside my laboratory."
The fungus arrives and you proceed with your experiments. When your research becomes known, various scientists approach you and ask what you did to ensure that it was safe to import the fungus.
When they discover that you made no investigative efforts, they criticize you severely. The story is written up in the newspaper and various people send letters to the editor complaining about your research.
Your employer is not happy with the bad publicity that has happened.
"Even though the fungus hasn't escaped the lab and no harm has happened to the ecology yet, the point is that you didn't care enough to look into the issue first," she says angrily.
"The unethical thing would be to just arrange for the import and not even think about the issue," says David Fischer, an internationally recognized mycologist.
"The government does not usually ask too many questions of researchers affiliated with credible institutions, so it is up to the researcher to consider consequences."