INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

KULLIYYAH OF ENGINEERING

GEN 4100 Engineering Ethics, Safety & Environment

Semester II 2016/2017

MID-TERM EXAM

Answered by:
Name : MOHAMAD FIRDAUS BIN OMAR
Matric No. : 1315905
Section :2

Due Date for Submission : 17th March 2017.

Date of Submission : 17th March 2017.

Answers for Question #1 (10 Marks)

 Engineering ethics is professional ethics which particularly formulated in codes where it

is applied to members of engineering group simply because the people affected are the members

of the group. Thus, engineering ethics are applied to engineers and no one else. Plus, engineering

ethics is part of thinking like an engineer and teaching ethics is part of thinking engineering.

Thus, I personally think that engineering students should be exposed to engineering ethics

subject.

There are many reasons why engineering ethics subject is important to engineering

students. One of them is to assist the students in recognizing and familiarizing themselves with

ethical issues in engineering. This can be further justified where eventhough a conflict or issue

on a particular matter initiates, it might not have been recognized by the affected parties until

matters further gone worse. In this case, for instance, anything that is subjected to be an issue or

conflict in engineering practice or the reasons why it subjected to be an issue or conflict

might not be recognized to unknowledgeable personnel. Thus, it is important for engineering

students to be exposed to engineering ethics subject.

Secondly, the reason why engineering students need to learn engineering ethics is to

assist the students in analysing key ethical concepts and principles pertaining to the particular

profession or practice. Students need to know in deep detailed ethical concepts and principles in

engineering profession rather than just understanding the engineering working principles on it.

Ethical concepts such as personnels health, safety, quality, risk or benefit, usefulness, efficiency,

environmental safety and so on need to be exposed to students to prevent resistance or

negligence by them in their future that consequently initiates enormous ethical issues. Thus, it is

important to give exposure to the students on engineering ethics for them to analyse and

promotes critical thinking on the key ethical concepts in engineering practice.

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 Other than that, it is important to teach engineering ethics subject to engineering students

in order to promote the students to deal with ethical judgements precisely related to matters

pertaining engineering ethical disagreement or uncertainty from the uninitiated or

unknowledgeable persons. When it comes to discussions or debates on certain ethical issues, it is

important for the students to acknowledge and expect that there will be disagreement and

uncertainty, but can be tolerated at certain extent. In this case, wide knowledge on engineering

ethics comes to play. Indeed the knowledgeable are superior that those who dont. Thus, it is

important to increase the students knowledge on engineering ethics to increase knowledge and

able to do ethical judgements.

Plus, teaching engineering ethics is important to the engineering students in order to

stimulate the sense of responsibility to the students so that they take ethical responsibility as a

serious matter. In this case, students should not only rely on theoretical and technical concepts in

engineering but ignoring the crucial concepts such as safety, risk/benefit, quality, usefulness and

so on. Ethical responsibility must be seen as the main concern in engineering practice and

profession and should be seriously taken into account in dealing with this practice, not only

mending with the technical content in engineering itself. Thus, engineering ethics subject is also

important to enhance sensitivity on students on ethical responsibility as an engineer itself.

Answers for Question #2 (10 Marks)

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Answers for Question #3 (10 Marks)

Problem Identification

Factual issues

-Leaking drums that contain chemical waste at ABC off-site location. Tom Treehorn (Head of

ABC chemical waste) wants to go there and bring the drums back to home site.

-Law forbids returning chemical waste to home site.

Conceptual issues

-Does bringing back the leaking drums to home site can reduce harm to environment?

Moral issues

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-It is acceptable to cause environmental problem in this case?

Preserving the environment is very important. Therefore, causing harm to environment is

unacceptable unless for something very important such as saving life.

-Is breaking the law to prevent environmental damage acceptable or not?

As long as breaking the law can definitely prevent harm to environment and at the same time

does not cause other problems (e.g. injury to the public etc.) then it may be acceptable.

Therefore if we conclude that bringing back the leaking drum may not prevent environmental

damage (or can lead to an equal problem), then their idea to bring back the leaking drums should

be unethical.

Problem Analysis

It is possible that bringing back the leaking drum to home site can reduce harm to environment

because workers at home site know how to handle the leakage. However, Scott also concerns

about possible spill of the chemical waste on the road. This not only could get ABC into serious

legal problem, but also means that they fail to achieve their goal of preventing environmental

damage. In fact, spilling the chemical waste on the road, may not only cause danger and anger to

motorists, but may cause even more serious environmental damage since the waste would spill

on an even larger area and it would be more difficult to clean up. Therefore, we are not exactly

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sure whether bringing back the leaking drum can definitely reduce environmental damage.

Hence, we may conclude that this action may not reduce environmental damage, and in fact has a

possibility to do a greater harm not just to the environment but to the public. Moreover, to bring

back the leaking drums breaks the law, and laws are (usually) made to prevent problem.

Furthermore, breaking this particular law seems to be a serious offence and may get ABC into

serious problem. Therefore, to bring back the leaking drums to home site seems unacceptable.

Identification of Alternatives

1) Scott agrees to help Tom to bring back the leaking drums but keep their action secret (i.e. not

informing EPA regarding bringing back the leaking drums and not telling the top management

about the leakage).

2) Scott agrees to help Tom to bring back the leaking drums but tell the authority (EPA) about

their idea and tell the top management of ABC about the leakage.

3) Scott does not agree to help Tom to bring back the leaking drum and immediately inform top

management about the leakage (so that top management can decide what to do).

4) Scott does not agree to help Tom to bring back the leaking drums and just keep quiet about the

leaking drums.

Evaluation of Alternatives

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 Positive Paradigm Negative
Features
Paradigm
Prevent
environment Harm the
A) al problem environme
1,2,3,4 nt

Obey the Break the

B)
law law
3, 4 1, 2

Honest/trustwor Not honest

C)
thy/integrity 1
2

Responsible
2, 3 Irresponsib
D)
le
1, 4

Feature A is about protecting the environment.

Feature B is about Scott should obey the law. If EPA find out that ABC bring back the leaking

drum, this would upset EPA, and if the leakage spill on the road, then ABC would be in serious

legal trouble.

Feature C is Scotts honesty/sincerity in taking his action. If he decides to bring back the leaking

drum, he should informing EPA and the top management about that.

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Feature D is about Scotts responsibility to inform top management of ABC about the leaking

drums. This can ensure that the problem is identified and prevent it from occurring in the future.

You can add other features if you find suitable, e.g. other aspects of professionalism like

discretion in communication, impartiality etc.

Justification of Choice

Choice number 3 is the best because it is the most ethical according to the line drawing. It shows

that Scott obeys the law and is a responsible engineer. It also shows that Scott cares about

preventing further environmental damage and about possible serious legal trouble that ABC may

face if they break the law.

Action Plan

In order to perform choice number 3, Scott should call and tell Tom Treehorn that he would not

help him to bring back the drums and explain why. Then Scott should immediately inform the

top management about the leakage.

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Implication of the Decision

Implications of decision number 3 is mainly positive, the same as the justification for choosing

number 3. It can avoid ABC from getting into serious legal trouble by obeying law. It can also

prevent future problem if the top management knows and investigate on the origin of the

leakage. Furthermore, not to bring back the leaking drum may prevent greater environmental

damage. On, the negative side, Scott may get into trouble with the Head of Chemical waste, Mr.

Tom Treehorn.

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