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To the wider example, it gets much, much more difficult. There is certainly a need for some separation between work and personal life, but it can never be totally distinct. I'd find it very difficult to codify where the line should be. Context, extent and motivation becomes hugely relevant. That makes it far more suited to an ethics panel or court of law, and completely unsuited for the Twitter court of outrage. We could paint different shades of grey all day, but for a flavour: A racist researcher discovering a major cancer breakthrough has reprehensible beliefs, as does Minsky - if allegations are proven, but it need not impact on their previous work's ability or validity. I'd accept the previous work - if that were conducted ethically, just as I take the lunchtime sandwich from the guy I never spoke to about politics, race or what have you. But... It starts to matter if it goes to law - was it a $50 fine or a 25 years conviction? A drunk weekend party with a one off incident of incredibly poor judgement is very different to a sustained predatory history over a decade. Employing them in the next job, even continuing to employ them, or placing in a position of visibility or policy, could indeed be a different matter. If they crossed the line to illegality, how often and how far, might they bring the organisation into disrepute? If it gets so heinous they are convicted and/or struck off, e.g. Andrew Wakefield with the MMR autism fraud, perhaps everything they researched is taitned too and should be struck. Hence it should be for an independent and hopefully considered judgement, with proportionate penalty, not a headline and outrage fest on twitter. Tim Hunt seems easier - he made a bad call on what I think was intended to be simply a joke. Poor choice for a specialist conference, but the outrage afterwards seemed way over the top for the offence. More a case of needing a quiet word with HR or management to engage brain before mouth, rather than discounting all his work or firing. |