https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/magazine/should-i-tell-my-friend-her-husband-is-cheating-on-her.html
Can it be wise to have someone live in a fool’s paradise? Many years ago, the philosopher Robert Nozick asked us to imagine an “experience machine,” which could deliver any experience you liked: Although you would actually be floating in a tank with electrodes attached to your brain, you wouldn’t know it — you would think that you were writing a great novel or making a friend. Should you get hooked up? Nozick was clear that you shouldn’t. It matters that we’re in touch with reality. All of which is to say that a cheerful life lived in ignorance of important facts about your situation is worse than a less agreeable one lived with the truth. In a sense, what you don’t know can hurt you. And — assuming your informant is reliable — it’s an important fact about your friend’s marriage that her husband has had a long-term extramarital relationship.
For physicians this is extremely frustrating, especially when the cheated spouse is also a patient.
ReplyDeleteMarital cheating isn't so benign. Forget the moral issues. What about STD's? The cheating partner potentially threatens the health of his or her unknowing partner.
Yet without confidentiality, the cheating spouse wouldn't come forward for treatment, harming him or herself and spreading the STD's further.
What is the solution?