Engineering Ethics

“Ethical Questions in the Design of Technology”

(Chapter 6)

➢ Authors
IBO VAN DE POEL & LAMBER ROYAKKERS
Chapter Outline

• 6.1 Introduction
• 6.2 Ethical Issues During the Design Process
• 6.3 Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
• 6.4 Regulatory Frameworks
• Summary
6.1 Introduction

• On June 3, 1998, the German high speed Intercity Express

(ICE) derailed at a speed of about 200 km/hr and ran into a
bridge that fell down on the train.
• Overall, 101 people were killed and 88 severely injured.
• Investigations after the accident showed that the disaster was
to a large extent due to a change in the wheel design of the
train.
• The new wheel was not tested at high speed before it came
into service, but based on existing experience and materials
theory.
• After introduction the wheel solved the vibration problems
and did not show any major problems until the fatal accident.
6.1 Introduction

• Three engineers, who all had been involved in the certification

of the wheels were charged with manslaughter. Three
objection were raised.
• First, among experts there was not a principled objection
against the new type of wheels.
• Second, the adequate inspection procedures might not have
prevented an accident like this.
• Third, it was not considered proven that the engineers had
made gross mistakes in calculating the load on the wheels.
Therefore the case was dismissed on the condition that each
defendant paid a fee of 10,000 Euros
6.2 Ethical Issues During the
Design Process

Designing can be described as an activity in which engineers

translate certain functions or aims into a working product or
system.
Stages of design:
• Problem analysis and formulation, including the formulation
of design requirements
• Conceptual design, including the creation of alternative
conceptual solutions to the design problem
• Decision: choice of one conceptual solution from a set of
possible solutions
• Detail design
• Prototype development and testing
6.2.1 Problem analysis and
formulation
• The stage of the design process in which the designer or the design
team analyses and formulates the design problem, including the
design requirements.

• On the basis of professional and corporate codes, a number of ethical

considerations can be mentioned that should be taken into account.
6.2.2 Conceptual design
• In the conceptual design stage the aim is
to generate concept designs. The focus
is on an integral approach to the design
problem. The designer does not try to
realize each design requirement
independently, but works on a
combination of design requirements.

• During the conceptual design stage the

creativity of designers is of major
importance. However, creativity does
not make you a morally better person.
6.2.3 Simulation
• The concept designs are checked in the simulation stage to see
whether they meet the design requirements.
• How much reliable the predictions are that are made in the
design process about the later behavior of the designed
product, is a key question asked.
• Moral considerations play a partial role in how much reliability
in predictions is desirable or acceptable.
6.2.3 Simulation

• The answer to this question depends in part on what is

morally at stake. In the case of the design of a nuclear power
plant, where an accident can result in thousands of deaths
and an area can become uninhabitable for an extended
period, the demands placed on the reliability of a statement
concerning the probability that an accident will occur are
considerably higher than say for a can opener.
6.2.3 Simulation

• Computer models are often used in simulations, computer

simulations can be unreliable for a number of reasons
• Computer models can contain mistakes or errors that the
users of the model are unaware of
• The assumptions made in drawing up a computer model can
be wrong even if no explicit errors or mistakes are made
• The users of computer models are sometimes unaware of the
limited domain of application for such models
• Computer models used are extrapolated to fields of
application in which their predictions are less reliable
6.2.4 Decision

• In the decision stage, various concept designs are compared

with each other and a choice is made for a design that has to
be detailed.

• The results from the simulation stage are used for this
comparison.

• Evaluation of the different possible designs usually takes place

in terms of the design requirements that resulted from the
analysis stage.
6.2.4 Decision

Two important terms

➢ Design criteria: A kind of design requirements which are

formulated in such a way that products meet them to greater
or lesser extent. They are often used to compare and choose
between different concept designs.

➢ Trade off: Compromise between design criteria. For example

you trade off a certain level of safety for certain level of
sustainability.
6.2.4 Decision

Ethical issues that rises from decision making

➢ Who to include
➢ Decision-making on design should be inclusive with respect to
relevant stakeholders and moral considerations.
➢ Explicit vs. Implicit decisions
➢ Decision that are simply seen as the best way to deal with a
specific problem or to proceed.
➢ Organizational deviance
➢ Norms that are seen as deviant or unethical outside the
organization are seen within the organization as normal and
legitimate.
➢ Challenger and O-rings.
6.2.4 Decision

• One important lesson is that adequately organizing decision-

making during the design process is essential to good design.

• Davis Collingride suggested four criteria for decision-making:

1. Corrigibility of decision (possibility..

2. Choose systems that are easy to control
3. Flexibility of the decision
4. Insensitivity of the decision to error
6.2.5 Detail Design

• The stage in which a chosen design is elaborated on and

detailed.
• Decision concerning: risks, health effects, and environmental
impact.
• Uranium stabilizer in airplanes.
• Tropical hard-wood in rivers.
6.2.6 Prototype development and
testing

• After the design is detailed, often a prototype of the design is

constructed and tested.
• Test: the execution of a technology in circumstances set and
controlled by the experiment, and in which data are gathered
systematically about how the technology functions in practice.
• Problem: test circumstances are different than actual practice.
• Solution: know what circumstances are relevant in actual
practice and which are irrelevant for performing a good test.
• Case The Herbicide 2,4,5-T: Farmers and Agriculture workers
used the right solvents, pressure valves, and safety clothing.
6.2.7 Manufacture and construction

Ethical issues during this stage:

• Labor conditions
• Issues of safety and health protection of workers
• Issues with respect to the environment and sustainability
• Construction work is known to be very dangerous activity
• US statistics: 39/100,000 death which is five times larger than
the average worker
• Improved by better planning and design
Case Hyatt Regency Hotel
Walkway Collapse
6.3.1 Cost-Benefit Analysis

• Cost-Benefit analysis is a general method that is often used in

engineering.
• It is that all considerations that are relevant for the choice
between different options are eventually expressed in one
common unit.
• Cost-benefit analysis can be also limited to the costs and
benefits of a company that is developing a product and
looking to market it.
• Cost benefit analysis is a method for comparing alternatives in
which all the relevant advantages (benefits) and
disadvantages (costs) of the options are expressed in
monetary units and the overall monetary cost or benefit of
each alternative is calculated.
6.3.1 Cost-Benefit Analysis

• Contingent validation is an approach to express values like

safety or sustainability in monetary units by asking people
how much they are willing to pay for a certain level of safety
or sustainability (example: the preservations of a piece if
beautiful nature).
• In terms of values, cost-benefit analysis might be understood
to be the maximization of ones overarching or super value,
such value could be an economic value like company profit, or
the value of the product to users but it could also be a moral
value like human happiness.
• If the latter is chosen, cost-benefit analysis is related to the
ethical theory of utilitarianism.
6.3.2 Multiple Criteria Analysis

• It is based on a comparison of different options with each

other with respect to a number of criteria.
• The value of each option is calculated according to the
following formula : wj = cgi * vij over I, where: wj is the value of
the jth option, gi is the relative weight of the ith criterion, and
vij is the score of the jth option on the ith criterion.
• The option with the highest value is then selected.
6.3.2 Multiple Criteria Analysis
• Multiple criteria analysis does not demand that all the criteria
are translated into one overarching criterion or value, such as
human happiness or welfare.

• Like cost-benefit analysis, multiple criteria analysis thus

presupposes the commensurability of values.

• Compared to cost-benefit analysis, the comparison between

options in multiple criteria analysis is vaguer because no
explicit attempt is made to translate all criteria to a common
unit (like money), which may result in flawed decision-making
because the result depends on the scale chosen.
6.3.3 Thresholds

• A third way to cope with conflicting design criteria is

to set a threshold for each criterion. For each
separate criterion (safety, health, costs, and
sustainability) a threshold is determined for what is
accepted
• Threshold is the minimal level of a (design) criterion
or value that an alternative has to meet in order to
be acceptable with respect to that criterion or value
6.3.3 Thresholds

• An advantage of setting thresholds is that the

acceptable is considered for each criterion without
making direct trade-offs between different design
requirement
• This may be helpful to guarantee a minimal level of
for example safety in the design process. However
the question is whether it is possible or desirable to
determine thresholds in complete isolation from
other concerns
6.3.3 Thresholds

• Another possible disadvantage of setting thresholds

is that you limit yourself as an engineer to realizing
these values, while more can be achieved with a
given design in terms of environmental impact or
sustainability for example.
6.3.4 Reasoning
This approach emphasizes judgment and reasoning about values.
It consists of three steps:
• Indentifying relevant values: What values are at stake in the
trade off

• Specifying the values: Some conceptualizations might not be

tenable because they cannot justify why the value at stake is
worthwhile.

• Looking for common ground among values: It helps solve the

value conflict. This is similar to Kant’s notion of the good will
(i.e. solve all value conflicts)
6.3.5 Value Sensitive Design

This approach takes into account the possibility of solving or

easing value conflicts through engineering design.
Three kinds of investigations:
• Empirical investigations: understand the experiences of the
people affected by technological designs

• Conceptual investigations: clarify the values at stake and make

trade-offs between values

• Technical investigation: analyze designs and their operational

principles
6.3.6 A comparison of the
different methods
The following table summarizes the pros and cons of each method:
6.4 Regulatory Frameworks:
Normal and Radical Design

• Is the totality of rules that apply to the design and

development of a technology
• Can be considered a part of morality (i.e. it deals with
judgments about how to act rightly)
• Partly based on public unrest or discussion
• Can help engineers make ethically relevant decisions in the
design process
6.4 Regulatory Frameworks:
Normal and Radical Design

In order to judge whether a regulatory framework can be

followed in design, the following conditions must be taken into
consideration:
• The framework is complete in that it covers the relevant
decisions without neglecting relevant issues
• The framework is free of contradictions and inconsistencies
• The framework is unambiguous
• The framework is morally acceptable
• The framework is lived by in practice
Difference between Normal
design and Radical design

• Normal design is the design in which the normal configuration

and working principle of the product remain the same
• Radical design is exactly the opposite. It is the design in which
either the normal configuration or the working principle of an
existing product is changed
• Regulatory frameworks are more common in normal design
than in radical
• Reason: The rules of the framework are related to the current
working principle or normal configuration.
What if the framework is morally
unacceptable ?

Engineers can follow the following strategies:

• Aim at changing the framework (i.e. get involved in the
formulation of the technical codes)
• Inform other parties that formulate other parts of the
framework about the problems they consider
• Deviate from certain elements of the regulatory framework in
the design process
• Opt from radical design, in which parts of the framework do
not longer apply
Summary
• Engineering design is a systematic process in which certain
functions are translated into a blueprint that can fulfill these
functions
• The design process can be subdivided in a number of steps, each
which raise their peculiar ethical issues: problem analysis and
formulation, conceptual design, simulation, decision, detail design,
and prototype development
• Some of the most important ethical decisions during design are
made in the decision stage. Five methods for making decisions in
cases of value conflict in design were discussed: cost-benefit
analysis, multiple criteria analysis, setting thresholds, reasoning
about values, and value sensitive design
• The degree to which frameworks are available depends on whether
we deal with redesign of existing products (normal design) or the
design of new innovative products (radical design)
References

• ETHICS, TECHNOLOGY, and ENGINEERING, Wiley-Blackwell