And if you can't be trusted to put forth the effort to do research to benefit your own education you shouldn't be trusted to make decisions about other people's lives.
Because the world deserves to read the awesomeness that is, my work...and on a slightly less conceded note, plagiarism is bad. Plus there's that whole self-satisfaction thing that ya get from your own work.
Individual research is the cornerstone of a university/graduate level (higher) education. If we're talking about EMS, as has been discussed here ad nauseum... if we want to be taken seriously as a PROFESSION, we need to have the education to support it.
By doing your own research (whether that means googling a subject, digging up a journal article or book in a *gasp* library, or collecting your own data/forming your own conclusions and publishing the findings), you are going to walk away a more competent student/provider/adult in society.
This research doesn't just allow you to find the one single possibly correct answer, but a broad understanding of the circumstances and reasons why that is correct. If giving a presentation, it allows you to frame a question or problem in other terms, or answer questions otherwise not understood.
In American society today, we have become obsessed with instant gratification, whether that's at the McDonald's drive through, googling something on our pocket devices or growing impatient when we don't get the answer we want on an anonymous internet forum in 5 minutes.