GNE 303

Engineering Ethics
Lecture 1

From Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases

 What is Engineering?
• A profession in which knowledge of the
mathematical and natural sciences gained by
study, experience, and practice is applied with
judgment to develop ways to utilize,
economically, the materials and forces of
nature for the benefit of mankind
- ABET
 What is Engineering?
Engineers create millions of products and services that we use
every day…

Professional Ethics GNE305 Fall 2013

 Innovation
• These innovations can greatly benefit mankind….

Nuclear Power Plant

 Innovation
…but they also have the potential to cause harm

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster (1986)

 Innovation
• Engineers built some of the largest polluting projects,
yet they are the ones who developed the most
sophisticated technology to clean the environment
from pollution.
• The work of engineers can affect public health and
safety and can influence business practices and even
politics.
 Attributes of a profession
• Work that requires sophisticated skills, the use of
judgment, and the exercise of discretion. Also, the
work is not routine and is not capable of being
mechanized.
• Membership in the profession requires extensive
formal education, not simply practical training or
apprenticeship.
• The public allows special societies or organizations that
are controlled by members of the profession to set
standards for admission to the profession, to set
standards of conduct for members, and to enforce
these standards.
• Significant public good results from the practice of the
profession
 Attributes of a profession
• In a profession, “judgment” refers to making significant
decisions based on formal training and experience. In
general, the decisions will have serious impacts on
people’s lives and will often have important implications
regarding the spending of large amounts of money.
• “Discretion” can have two different meanings.
– Being discrete in the performance of one’s duties by
keeping information about customers, clients, and
patients confidential.
– discretion involves the ability to make decisions
autonomously. This definition is similar in many ways
to that of the term “judgment”
 What is Ethics?
• Ethics is synonymous with morality

• Morals are concepts based on given values (i.e.

religion) or socially acquired values

• These values are either:

1) Required (obligatory) – respect for life
2) Permissible (allowed) – killing in self defense
3) Desirable (a wanted good) – poverty reduction
4) Unacceptable (bad) – betrayal, cheating
 What is Ethics?
• Much of ethics focuses on what one should
NOT do
• Prohibitive ethics (vs. aspirational ethics)
• Codes of conduct are formulated in terms of
rules that can be enforced…
• …and it is easier to enforce rules that specify
what is prohibited
 What is Ethics?
• Aspirational ethics
• Social awareness and concern, professional
pride and character, environmental
conscientiousness
• Engineers Without Borders
• http://www.ewb-lebanon.org
What is Engineering Ethics?
• Engineering ethics is a look into
morality within the engineering
profession: a nexus between policies,
actions and values
• What engineers do, individually or
collectively, is one thing…what they
should do is another
 PERSONAL VS. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

• Personal ethics deals with how we treat each others

in our day-to-day lives. Many of these principles are
applicable to ethical situations that occur in business
and engineering.
• Professional ethics often involves choices on an
organizational level rather than a personal level.
Problems will seem different because they involve
relationships between two corporations, between a
corporation and the government, or between
corporations and groups of individuals.
 Why Study Ethics?
“Why should I study ethics? I am a good person”

Ethical Unethical
 Why Study Ethics?
• You are not being asked to study ethics in general
• You are being asked to study your profession’s ethics
• Just being a good person does not mean you are
well prepared for the ethical challenges you will face
during your career
• The public, employers, and clients depend on you to
do the right thing
 Why Study Ethics?
• It can be complicated, controversial
• It strengthens your ability to reason clearly about
moral questions
• It helps to build a habit of becoming morally
concerned about the needs and rights of others
 Why Study Ethics?
Practical skills that will help in improving the
ability to reflect carefully on moral issues:
1. Moral Awareness: recognizing a problem

2. Moral Reasoning: making clear, logical, and

convincing arguments

3. Moral Coherence: being consistent in your moral

thinking/behavior
 Why Study Ethics?
4. Moral Resolve: discerning responses to solution

5. Respect for Persons: having concern for others

6. Tolerance of Diversity: tolerating other moral

perspectives

7. Integrity: having moral consistency between career

and personal life
 ETHICS AND THE LAW
• Role of law in engineering ethics. The practice of
engineering is governed by many laws on the
international, federal, state, and local levels. Many of
these laws are based on ethical principles, although
many are purely of a practical, rather than a
philosophical, nature.
• There is also a distinction between what is legal and
what is ethical. Many things that are legal could be
considered unethical. For example, designing a
process that releases a known toxic, but unregulated,
substance into the environment is probably
unethical, although it is legal.
 ETHICS AND THE LAW
• Conversely, just because something is illegal doesn’t
mean that it is unethical. For example, there might be
substances that were once thought to be harmful, but
have now been shown to be safe, that you wish to
incorporate into a product. If the law has not caught up
with the latest scientific findings, it might be illegal to
release these substances into the environment, even
though there is no ethical problem in doing so.
• As an engineer, you are always minimally safe if you
follow the requirements of the applicable laws. But in
engineering ethics, we seek to go beyond the dictates of
the law. Our interest is in areas where ethical principles
conflict and there is no legal guidance for how to resolve
the conflict.
 The Pinto Case:
• On August 10, 1978, a Ford Pinto was hit from behind on
a highway in Indiana. The impact of the collision caused
the Pinto’s fuel tank to rupture and burst into flames,
leading to the deaths of three teenage girls riding in the
car. This was not the first time that a Pinto had caught on
fire as a result of a rear-end collision. In the seven years
following the introduction of the Pinto, there had been
some 50 lawsuits related to rear-end collisions. However,
this time Ford was charged in a criminal court for the
deaths of the passengers.
• This case was a significant departure from the norm and
had important implications for the Ford engineers and
managers.
 The Pinto Case:
• A civil lawsuit result in Ford being required to pay damages to
the victim’s estates.
• A criminal proceeding, on the other hand, would indicate that
Ford was grossly negligent in the deaths of the passengers
and could result in jail terms for the Ford engineers or
managers who worked on the Pinto.
• The case against Ford hinged on charges that it was known
that the gas-tank design was flawed and was not in line with
accepted engineering standards, even though it did meet
applicable federal safety standards at the time. During the
trial, it was determined that Ford engineers were aware of the
dangers of this design, but management, concerned with
getting the Pinto to market rapidly at a price competitive with
subcompact cars already introduced or planned by other
manufacturers, had constrained the engineers to use this
design.
 The Pinto Case:
• The dilemma faced by the design engineers who worked
on the Pinto was to balance the safety of the people who
would be riding in the car against the need to produce
the Pinto at a price that would be competitive in the
market. They had to attempt to balance their duty to the
public against their duty to their employer.
• Ultimately, the attempt by Ford to save a few dollars in
manufacturing costs led to the expenditure of millions of
dollars in defending lawsuits and payments to victims. Of
course, there were also uncountable costs in lost sales
due to bad publicity and a public perception that Ford
did not engineer its products to be safe.
 The Pinto Case:

• For Ford engineers and managers, the

question became the following: Where does
an engineering team strike the balance
between safety and affordability and,
simultaneously, between the ability of the
company to sell the car and make a profit?
 National Society for Professional Engineers
Preamble
“Engineering is an important and learned profession. As
members of this profession, engineers are expected to
exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity.
Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality
of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided
by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and
equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the
public health, safety, and welfare. Engineers must
perform under a standard of professional behavior that
requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical
conduct.”
 National Society for Professional Engineers
Fundamental Canons

Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:

1. Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public
2. Perform services only in areas of their competence
3. Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful
manner
4. Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees
5. Avoid deceptive acts
6. Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and
lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and
usefulness of the profession.
 Summary
• The work of engineers can affect public health and safety
and can influence business practices and even politics.
• Several notorious cases that have received a great deal of
media attention in the past few years have led engineers
to gain an increased sense of their professional
responsibilities.
• The goal of this course is to sensitize you to ethical issues
before you have to confront them.
• Moral Autonomy: the ability to think critically and
independently about moral issues and to apply this
moral thinking to situations that arise in the course
of professional engineering practice.
• Not everything legal is ethical
 Case #1

SHOULD TOM ACCEPT THE OFFER?

 Case #2

WHAT SHOULD MARY DO?