Methods for Analyzing

and Resolving cases/

problem in Engineering
Ethics

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Analysis of Issues in Ethical
problems
• Understand all of the issues involved.
• Once these issues are determined,
frequently a solution to the problem
becomes apparent.

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Issues Involved in Understanding Ethical
problem

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 Factual Issues
 They involve what is actually known about a
case.
 Though seem easy but are not always clear
and may be controversial.

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 Factual Issues
Examples :
Global warming. Greenhouse gases such as
CO2 trap heat in the atmosphere and cause
global warming. It is thought that the
majority of this gas emanates from industrial
plants and cars. If this is the case, engineers
may be asked to design better products and
redesign older ones. However the global
warming procedure is barely understood
and the need of curtailment of the emission
of these gases is still controversial.

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Conceptual Issues
 To do with the meaning or applicability
of an idea.
 What constitutes a bribe as opposed to an
acceptable gift?
 In case of bribe the value of the gift is
probably a well known fact. What isn't
known is whether accepting it will lead to
unfair influence on a business decision.
 Not clear cut and lead controversies as
well.

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 Moral Issues
 Relate to morals of an act/individual etc.
 Once the factual and conceptual issues are
resolved, it is usually clear which moral
concept applies.
 Example: A bribe offered by a sales
representative, once its determined whether
it is simply a bribe or is really a bribe, then
the appropriate action is obvious.
 If we determine that is indeed a bribe, then
it cannot ethically be accepted.

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 What to do??
Factual issues
Can be resolved through research to establish the truth. It is not
always possible to achieve a final determination of the truth
that everyone can agree on, but generally further research helps
clarify the situation, can increase the areas of an agreement and
can sometimes achieve consensus on the facts.

Conceptual Issues:
Can be resolved by agreeing on the meaning of
terms and concepts, sometimes agreement isn't
possible but as with factual issues further analysis
of the concepts at least clarifies some of the issues
and helps to facilitate agreement.

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 What to do??
Moral Issues:
Can be resolved by agreement as to which moral
principles are pertinent (important) and how they hold
be applied.

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Bottom –Up Methods of resolution :

1. The method of Balancing

2. The method of Casuistry or Line
drawing
3. Creative middle ways

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1. The method of Balancing

The simplest of these methods is what we might call the

method of balancing, where reasons for alternative evaluations
are considered and “weighed,” and the alternative that has the
most convincing reasons on its side is selected.

We examine the reasons for and against

universal engineering registration and find one
set of reasons more convincing, all things
considered. Or perhaps we find the reasons on
both sides equally convincing, in which case
either option is morally permissible.

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1. The method of Balancing
Example :

Engineer Jane owns a civil engineering design firm. She has

a chance to bid on part of the design work for a fertilizer
plant in Country X. The plant will increase food production
in a country where many people do not have sufficient food.
Unfortunately, the plant will have some bad environmental
effects, and correcting the problems will make the fertilizer
more expensive, so much so that the fertilizer will be too
expensive for farmers in Country X. Should she bid on the
design?

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1. The method of Balancing
Example :

She may decide to list considerations in favor of submitting a

bid and considerations against it. On the one hand, she will be
contributing to the saving of many lives, the economic
development of Country X, and the economic advancement of
her firm. On the other hand, she will be contributing to the
environmental degradation of Country X, and her firm may
receive some negative publicity. She must attempt to balance
these two sets of considerations and determine which set has
the greater moral “weight.”
The method of balancing does not provide any specific
directions for comparing alternative evaluations of courses of
action, but sometimes such direction is not necessary. The
second technique provides something more in the way of
analytical technique

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2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing

 Useful for situations in which the applicable moral

principles are clear but there seems to be great deal of
gray area about which ethical principle applies.
 It is performed by drawing a line along which various
examples and hypothetical situations are placed.
 Decision is made about what to do or believe in a
problematic situation by comparing the problematic
situation with one that is clear.

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2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
 The comparison–using reasoning by analogy–is made
by comparing the FEATURES of the TEST CASE with
the features of a POSITIVE PARADIGM and a
NEGATIVE PARADIGM. A “feature” is a
characteristic that can be used to distinguish the two
paradigms from the test case. The test case is a case or
situation which is the subject of the analysis. A
negative paradigm is a clear or uncontroversial
example of an action that is wrong or morally
impermissible, and a positive paradigm is a clear and
uncontroversial example of an action that is right or
morally permissible.

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 1:
Denise is an engineer at a large construction firm. It is her
job to specify rivets for the construction of a large
apartment building. She has the power to make the
decision by herself. After some research and testing, she
decides to use ACME rivets for the job, because indeed they
are the best product. On the day after she orders the rivets,
an ACME representative visits her and gives her a voucher
for an all-expenses paid trip to the ACME Technical Forum
in Jamaica. The voucher is worth $5000.00. The four-day
trip will include eighteen hours of classroom instruction,
time in the evening for sight-seeing, and a day-long tour of
the coastline. The time will be roughly equally divided
between education and pleasure. The Does this trip fall
under the category of bribery

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 1 :
Features Positive Test Case Negative
Paradigm Paradigm
Gift Size $1.00 _ _ _ _ _ _ _X_ _ $ 5,000.00
Timing After Decision X_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Before Decision
Reason Education _ _ __ _X _ _ _ _ Pleasure
Power to Made With _ _ _ _ __ _X _ _ Made Alone
Make Others
Decisions
Quality of Best _X_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Worst
Product

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 1:
In a line-drawing analysis, one must not only decide
where to place the “x” on the spectrum, but also how
much “weight” or importance to give each of the
“x’s.” Some features may be more important than
others may. For example, one might decide that the
fact that the offer of the trip was made after the
decision to buy ACME rivets means that the gift
cannot be considered a bribe. On the other hand, it
can be a bribe to other engineers who will see that
buying ACME products results in their being offered
some nice trips. However, if we are asking whether
the offer is a bribe to Denise, the answer should be
that it is certainly not a paradigm bribe.

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:
 Our company would like to dispose of slightly
toxic (Poisonous) waste by dumping it into a
local lake from which a nearby town gets its
drinking water.
 How can we determine if this practice is
acceptable ?
 Let start by defining the problem and the
positive and negative paradigm.

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:
Problem:
 A company dumps waste in lake.
 The lake - water supply for a village
 Dump concentration 5 ppm (parts per million)
 Environmental Protecting Agency (EPA) limit 10
ppm
 At 5 ppm no health problems and consumers
would not be able to detect compound in their
drinking water is expected.

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:
Positive Paradigm
• The water supply for the town should be clean and safe.
Negative Paradigm
• Toxic levels of waste are put into the lake.

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:
Features for consideration :

1. The company dumps the chemical into the lake.

At 5 ppm the chemical will be harmless but the town
water will have an unusual taste.
2. The chemical can be effectively removed by the
towns existing water treatment system.
3. The chemical can be removed by the town with
new equipment that will be purchased by the
company.
4. The chemical can be removed by the town with
new equipment for which the taxpayer will pay.

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:
5) Occasionally exposure to the chemical can
make people feel it but this only lasts for an hour
and is rare
6) At 5 ppm, some people can get fairly sick but
the sickness only lasts a week and there is no long
term harm.
7) Equipment can be installed at the plant to
further reduce the waste level to 1 ppm

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:
Draw the line :

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:

• It may be clear that there is a gap in the

knowledge.
• In this case the organization might need more
information on seasonal variations in waste
concentration and water usage of the town.
• Information on potential interactions of the
chemical with other pollutants such as runoff of
pesticides from local farms.
• Note that there is some subjectivity in
determining exactly where along the line each
of the examples fit.

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:

Our problem can be inserted in between 1 and 7 along

the line.

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 2. The method of Casuistry or
Line Drawing
Example 2:
• This is clear that dumping the toxic waste is
probably a morally acceptable choice since no
humans will be harmed and the waste levels will be
well below those that could cause any harm.

• Since it is somewhat far from the positive paradigm

there are probably better choices that can be made
and the company should investigate these
alternatives.

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3. Creative Middle way
Suppose we have a conflict between two or more
legitimate moral obligations, where the two obligations
appear to be at loggerheads. Sometimes it is possible, by
creative thinking, to come up with a course of action
that satisfies both obligations, although perhaps not in
the way that we had originally supposed.

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3. Creative Middle way
For example, a plant might be emitting some
dangerous pollutants that are environmentally
harmful, but completely eliminating them would
be so expensive that the plant would have to close,
throwing many local inhabitants out of work.
Assuming there is an obligation both to preserve
jobs and to protect the environment, a creative
middle way might be to eliminate the worst
pollutants and forego a complete cleanup until
more economical means of doing so can be found.
This alternative would be particularly attractive if
the pollutants that remain would not cause
irreversible damage to the environment or
humans.

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3. Creative Middle way
Example 1 ( Denice case) :
A creative middle way might also be found. Suppose we
take the two competing values to be the value of the trip
for recreation and instruction, on the one hand, and the
need to avoid the appearance of bribery and to avoid
undue influence on professional judgment on the other.
Perhaps Denise’s manager could suggest that she may
take the trip, but her company will pay travel and other
expenses, and that other engineers who were not
involved in the decision must also be allowed to take the
decision. Furthermore, it must be understood that the
firm’s engineers will be allowed to attend the forum, at
the firm’s expense, whether or not the firm buys ACME
products. This arrangement would only occur, of course,
if the technical value of the forum was very great. It
would, however, allow Denise to honor the competing
obligations in a creative way.
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Top- Down Methods of resolution :

1. The Ethics of Utilitarianism

2. The Ethics of respect for persons

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1. The Ethics of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism holds that the right action is the one

that produces the best consequences, and the best
consequences are those that produce the greatest total
amount of happiness or well-being of all of those who
are affected by the action.

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1. The Ethics of Utilitarianism
Example :
Kevin is the engineering manager for the county
road commission. He must decide what to do about
Forest Drive, a local, narrow, two-lane road. For
each of the past 7 years, at least one person has
suffered a fatal automobile accident by crashing
into trees, which grow close to the road. Many
other accidents have also occurred, causing serious
injuries, wrecked cars, and damaged trees. Kevin is
considering widening the road. Thirty trees will
have to be cut down for him to do this. Kevin is
already receiving protests from local citizens who
want to protect the beauty and ecological integrity
of the area. Should Kevin widen the road?

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1. The Ethics of Utilitarianism
Example :
In this case, the conflicting values are public health ,
safety , the beauty and ecological integrity.Let us
suppose that widening the road will save one life
and prevent two serious injuries and five minor
injuries each year. Not widening the road will
preserve the beauty and ecological integrity of the
area. Even though the preservation will increase the
happiness of many more people, the deaths and
injuries are far more serious negative utilities for
those who experience them. Therefore the greatest
total amount of utility is probably produced by
widening the road.

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2. The Ethics of Respect for Persons
With utilitarianism, a harm to one person can be
justified by a bigger benefit to someone else. In the
ethics of respect for persons, there are some things you
may not do to a person, even if it will benefit others.

The fundamental idea in the ethics of respect for

persons is that you must respect each person as a
free and equal moral agent–that is, as a person who
has goals and values of his or her own and who has
a right to pursue those values as long as he or she
does not violate similar rights of others.

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2. The Ethics of Respect for Persons
One philosopher, Alan Gewirth, has suggested three
levels of rights:

Level I, the category of the most important rights,

includes the rights to life, to bodily integrity, and to
mental integrity. I would add the right to free and
informed consent to actions that affect oneself.

Level II includes the right not to be deceived,

cheated, stolen from, defamed, and have one’s
promises broken. It also includes the right to free
speech.

Level III includes the right to acquire property, and

the right of non-discrimination.

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2. The Ethics of Respect for Persons
Example :

Karen has been working as a design engineer under

Andy. She has learned that Andy is about to be offered a
job as head safety inspector for all the oil rigs the
company owns in the region. Karen worries that Andy’s
drinking may affect Andy’s ability to perform his new
job and thereby endanger workers on the oil rigs. She
asks Andy to turn down the new assignment, but Andy
refuses. Should Karen take her concerns to management?

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2. The Ethics of Respect for Persons
Example :

In this case, the right of Andy to advance his career (by

trying to acquire property), which is a Level III right,
conflicts with the rights to life and bodily integrity of
the workers on the rig, which are Level I rights. In this
conflict, the rights of the workers are the more
important rights, and Karen should take her concern to
management.

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