Misjudged: What’s Wrong With Court-Ordered Authorship

A judge last week sentenced former pharmaceutical executive Andrew G. Bodnar to write a book about his misdeeds. “We do see the possibility of justice in this sentence — if Dr. Bodnar hates to write. But it feels like an invitation to insincerity. In fact, it feels a little like asking an adolescent boy to explain, in front of his friends, why telling a lie is bad, bad, bad.” And there’s no sidestepping the issue of vanity.