Ethics What is ethics?

“branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions”

But I am an engineer!

Engineering is a profession

Professional engineers are expected to act ethically

But we have LAWS

Surely it is OK to just act legally? It's legal so we can do it!! Not always clear what is legal.

The law does not cover all situations.

PROFFESIONAL CODES OF PRACTICE.

Professional bodies have codes of practice.

To be a professional engineer you are bound to abide be these guidelines.

Codes of practice can not cover every situation. But they do state that professional engineers should act ethically.

From the IET web site . . .

"Being a professional engineer means that the wider public trust you to be competent and to adhere to certain ethical standards. The trust you derive from being seen as a professional is one of the advantages of being a member of the IET, but it also means you have certain ethical responsibilities."

"Like most professional bodies, the IET has a number of Rules of Conduct which set out the standards of behaviour expected of its members. However, a list of rules will never cover every situation that may arise, and there will always be a role for individual judgement in deciding how to apply these rules."

ENGINEERING ETHICS.

Doing the right thing. Depends on the situation. You need to be able to justify your actions

SOME CASE STUDIES

Some ethical issues. Honesty

Example:

"How do you take advantage of business opportunities whilstmaking sure you are as honest as possible with your customers? Whataction might you take to make a "facilitation payment" to win acontract?"

Some ethical issues. Integrity

Example:

“To what extent should your own moral views about war and warfare affect your professional judgement as an engineer in the defence industry?”

Confidentiality

Example:

“In what situations can a claim of "whistleblowing" justify the disclosure of confidential information?”

Honesty

Competence

Example:

“How do you know whether you, as an engineer, are competent to make a particular decision which might have important personal consequences for people?”

Environment / sustainability

Commercial pressure

Health and safety

Example:

“How can we justify any risk to human life? What is a reasonable risk?”

Information / privacy

SOME EXAMPLES

Space Shuttle Disaster

Launched despite temperature being to low for O rings.

Pressure from management on engineers to give the right “answer”

Piper alpha

Break down in safety. Procedures not followed 67 people killed

Google streetmap wifi!

“For three years, Google’s street view cars roamed cities worldwide photographing street scenes for use in creating Google maps. While doing so, it also identified Wi-Fi hot spots.”

“According to Google, its engineers accidentally inserted the wrong data-sniffing code while experimenting with the software and failed to discover the error when they put the software into street view cars”

“Whether Google acted illegally or unethical remains debatable. Without evidence of wrongful intent, however, Google’s collection of Wi-Fi data remains only an embarrassing blunder.”

http://sbj.net/

BP's Gulf Oil Spill

CONCLUSIONS

Professionals must act ethically. Ethics is about doing the right thing. Depends on the situation. You need to think!