Ethical Dilemma: Should I Ghostwrite My Bosss PhD?
"Research assistant questions ethics of ghostwriting PhD for blind boss, seeking advice on maintaining academic integrity in the situation."
A research assistant says they can’t stomach the idea of ghostwriting their boss’s PhD, even though the boss is legally blind and has already published papers. It’s not a simple “should I help?” situation, it’s a “your name is on the work, but your boss gets the degree” dilemma that hits right in the middle of academic integrity.
The assistant has been helping for months, doing online research tasks the boss cannot do with the screen reader setup. Now the boss is asking them to start writing sections based on an outline and sources the assistant has already gathered, because the boss can read documents but it takes far longer to process them.
The assistant is stuck between doing right by a disabled coworker and doing wrong by the academic record.
Original Post
The title might sound ridiculous. But I work as a research assistant for a disabled (blind) person who has asked me to (after a few months of assisting him with research, as he cannot work the online search masks) essentially start writing on the sections in the outline that I have done research on so far.
He absolutely Can write - as well as read my source documents, even though it presumably takes him a lot more time and effort as he can only read and work his computer by relying on the robot voice. But he works full time in the field he's writing his PhD in and has published papers before.
I simply can't seem to bring myself to ghostwrite a PhD, no matter the circumstance. Yes, it would be my work that someone else is taking credit for, but worse - I'm one of those people who still believes in academic integrity.
I think you cannot have a PhD if you are not the one who has written it. If it was genuinely *impossible* for him to do so, while being a stern believer in making everything as accessible to disabled people as possible at many costs, I just don't think he should be able to get a PhD.
Will I be the a*****e for refusing to essentially ghostwrite said chapters?
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This also echoes the family standoff of skipping a reunion for therapy, even as relatives expected her to show up.
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The whole mess starts after months of research help, when the blind boss points to the outline and asks OP to turn it into full chapters.
OP’s discomfort spikes because their boss can technically do it, just slower, which makes “accessibility” feel tangled up with credit-stealing.
The comments are going to get spicy because OP frames it as impossible to have a PhD without writing it yourself, even if the disability makes the workload uneven.
By the time OP asks if they’d be the a*****e for refusing, the question is no longer about research masks, it’s about who gets to claim the final product.
What do you think about this situation? Let us know in the comments.
OP might be doing the most ethical thing possible, even if it costs them the job.
Still unsure about where to draw the line with family? See how she handled disciplining her niece against her sister’s wishes in Managing Nieces Behavior: A Family Dilemma Unfolds.
