SUMMARY of “INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING ETHICS”

Pablo Oropin BS Computer Engineering

BS Computer Science

Harding University

poropin@harding.edu

March 26th 2008

ABSTRACT

“Introduction to Engineering Ethics” is a

book that introduces ethical issues to prospective

engineers so that they would know how to make their

own moral decisions when similar situations show

up. Furthermore, throughout the entire book the

author introduces the aspiring engineers with their

moral responsibilities towards society, family and the

world. Each chapter of this book follows a pattern to

emphasize the importance of making moral decisions.

The author writes a section about a particular moral

issue, then he gives examples about it, and finally he

asks the reader questions pertaining to the topic. By

using this pattern, the author intrigues the reader to

think about the relevance of moral decisions and the

need to increase moral autonomy. According to the

author, moral autonomy is one of his main goals, and

he defines it as the skill or habit of thinking rationally

about ethical issues on the basis of moral concern

(page 14).

1. SUMMARY

Chapter one emphasizes how irresponsibility

from engineers can cause a catastrophe. The example

used by the author to illustrate this point is the one

about the Hyatt-Regency walkway collapse.

Engineers who were building this walkway changed

their original design without calculating the forces

that would act on the new design. As a result, the

walkway collapsed and everything else turned out to

be a catastrophe. The bottom line of this example is

that responsible engineers must evaluate a design step

by step if that design has changed before starting to

build. Chapter one also highlights how corporations

must handle social and moral responsibilities.

Corporations are usually concerned about their well

being; however, they must be socially responsible by

increasing funding in areas that prevent social or

moral issues. Again, the author provides an example

about this point. He mentions that nearly three billion

dry-cell batteries end up in municipal waste systems

annually (page 30). Thanks to socially responsible

corporations that provided capital to come up with

solutions to handle these toxic products, they are

regulated once they leave the factory where they were

manufactured. In other words, corporations that are

socially responsible must protect the environment,

train disadvantaged workers, or make philanthropic

donations to local communities or to artistic projects

(page 31).

In chapter 2, “Introduction to Engineering

Ethics” transitions to the different ethical theories

that engineers can use to come up with their own

moral judgment on a particular issue. The first theory

that the author explains is utilitarianism which

establishes that a moral decision ought to produce the

most good for the most people, giving equal

consideration to everyone affected. Rights Ethics is

the next theory that chapter 2 explains. This ethical

theory says that a right moral decision is one that

always respects human rights no matter what the

circumstances are. According to this theory, a moral

decision must not interfere with someone else’s rights

such as life or liberty. By applying this concept to

engineering, engineers must be required to be truthful

in making their own decisions and performing their

work because of the rights of their employers and

clients. Duty ethics is the next theory that the author

presents, and it is about the duties to respect persons’

autonomy (self-determination) when making a moral

decision. For instance, if you have a right not to be

hit, then everybody has a duty no to hit you, or if you

have a right to life, then everyone has a duty no to

kill you. According to the author, this theory is more

complex than what it seems because its fundamentals

are duties and not rights which shift the emphasis to

what it owed morally to others (rights). Another

ethical theory explained in chapter 2 is virtue ethics

which focuses on the kinds of persons, groups and

organizations we should aspire to be. The author

defines virtues as the desirable habits, tendencies,

attitudes, emotions and right conduct (page 52). In

order to accomplish the goal of virtue ethics, a person

must acquire virtues through habit formation, to

reach an adequate balance between desire, conduct

and attitude as the author says. Pragmatism is another

theory that this book talks about and it emphasizes

the importance of particular contexts in which rights,

duties and virtues must be weighed and balanced for

every particular issue; thus, it is not simply

maximizing good but considering the interests of

everyone affected. The last ethical theory that chapter

2 explains is ethical relativism which establishes that

values are relative to and reducible to conventions,

customs, or laws (page 60). For instance, a moral

decision is right if it complies with local laws even if

those laws are harmful for people. Throughout

chapter 2, the author presents prospective engineers

with the different types of moral reasoning that they

could use when making their own decisions on

particular issues. Notwithstanding, out of those

theories that the author explains, I think that the best

one is pragmatism because making a moral decision

must always require taking all of the different factors

into account, allowing the decision to be thoroughly

thought out.

Chapter 3 in this book explains how

engineering is somehow an experiment in society

because any project is carried out in partial

ignorance, the final outcomes of the project are

generally unknown (as it is the case of experiments),

and safe engineering products rely on the knowledge

gained before and after they leave the factory. The

importance of this chapter is letting aspiring

engineers know that they must be conscientious in

informing the public about all the implications when

doing an engineering project because is not merely a

project but an experiment. Engineering projects are

experiments that are generally designed to produce

very little knowledge, but must be carried out by

responsible engineers. The author emphasizes the

idea that all engineers have to have “a conscientious

commitment to live by moral values, a

comprehensive perspective, autonomy and

accountability” (page 81), and that is what makes

engineers responsible experimenters when carrying

out an engineering project. Furthermore, the author

says that the goals of a responsible engineer are

having the safety of human subjects as the primary

obligation, having a constant awareness of the

experimental nature of any project, being

autonomous by being involved in all steps of a

project, and being held accountable for the results of

a project. Thus, an engineer must be constantly

aware of moral implications and who will be affected

when carrying out an engineering project. If

engineers are conscientious then the public sees them

as guardians of the public interest, who protect the

welfare and safety of those who are not part of the

implementation of engineering projects.

Chapter 4 is about the different safety issues

that engineers are involved with. From an

engineering perspective “a thing is safe if its risks are

judged to be acceptable” (page 108). A risk is the

potential that something unwanted and harmful may

occur (page 110). Engineering products involve

many risks; however, they are really helpful in our

world today. For example, the author tells about how

airplane travel is safer than automobile travel because

for each mile traveled it leads to fewer deaths and

injuries. The bottom line of this chapter is that

engineers must evaluate if it is worth taking the risks

of carrying out an engineering project by taking into

account many factors such as safety of society, and

safety of the environment. Many large projects are

justified on the basis of a risk-benefit analysis. This

analysis includes basic questions such as what are the

benefits of the project? Is the product worth the risks?

And do they outweigh the risks? This analysis must

be done taking into account that engineers’ decisions

do not affect the public only but their decisions have

a direct impact on people who feel it very deeply.

The author provides with three good examples about

the importance of safety when carrying out

engineering projects: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl,

and Citicorp Tower. At Three Mile Island a

catastrophe almost occurred because of the lack of

emergency preparedness at both the reactor site and

the evacuation-planning centers. The reactor had

practically no heat removal and considerable heat

was being produced by the continuing radioactive

decay of waste products because engineers could not

repair the feed water pumps until thirteen and one-

half hours later. Chernobyl is another example that

illustrates how engineers who are not committed to

safety can cause catastrophes. Chernobyl was a

nuclear power plant in which engineers violated a lot

of safety regulations carrying out a test to determine

how long the mechanical inertia of the turbine-

generator’s rotating mass could keep the generator

producing electric power after the steam supply was

shut off. They supposed they could maintain the

power in the reactor from 700-1000 megawatts;

however, they dropped the power to 30 megawatts

where the reactor was hard to control. Engineers at

Chernobyl even blocked the emergency signals and

automatic shutdown controls. Because of the many

violations of safety regulations, the reactor exploded

killings hundreds and injuring thousands. The last

example was about the Citicorp tower and it shows

how an engineer committed to safety must act.

LeMessurier built this tower without taking into

account loads from strong quartering winds. After

many dilemmas within himself, he decided to act and

fix the tower for the safety of the people.

In chapter 5 the book explains the

responsibilities and rights that engineers have in a

workplace. One of the main responsibilities that

engineers have is confidentiality which is the duty to

keep secret all information deemed to be kept secret

(page 144). Nevertheless, engineers face many

problems keeping that duty if they change jobs

because in order to “fully protect the secrets from an

old employer on a new job would thus virtually

require that part of the engineer’s brain be removed”

(page 146). In other words, there is no way to fully

protect privileged information; however, engineers

must respect the autonomy of corporations and

recognize their legitimate control over that private

information. Another responsibility that engineers

have at work is making right judgments when

conflicts of interest show up. According to the text,

an engineer has conflicts of interest if they have

interests that if pursued could keep them from

meeting the obligations towards their employer or

client for whom they work for. In order to make the

best moral decision when a conflict of interest arises,

engineers are obligated to inform their employers and

obtain approval from them. Chapter 5 then takes the

attention to the rights of engineers. There are three

types of rights that engineers have which are human

rights like the right to live, employee rights like the

right to receive a salary, and professional rights. For

the latter one, the author talks about the right of

professional conscience which is the moral right to

exercise professional judgment in order to pursue

professional responsibilities. Another professional

right that the author explains is the right of

conscientious refusal which is the right to decline in

taking part in unethical behavior. The last

professional right of engineers mentioned in this text

is the right to recognition for their work and

accomplishments. This chapter then explains what

whistleblowing means. The author defines

whistleblowing as the information conveyed by an

employee or former employee about a significant

moral problem to someone who has the authority to

take the necessary actions to penalize the people who

are responsible. One of the examples about

whistleblowing is the Dan Applegate DC-10 crash.

Applegate could have blown the whistle on the

company for their associated flaws in the design of

the plane, but he did not and a crash occurred.

Whistleblowing should be for the public good and

not for getting money or to undermine a company.

In Chapter 6 the text focuses on global

issues. The author emphasizes the Union Carbide

incident. It is cost effective for multinational

companies to outsource labor to less economically

developed countries because population in these

countries is more inclined to accept jobs where they

might be at risk. Sometimes, because standards are

lower in the host country, the multinational takes

advantage of the less-developed country. The

responsibility of engineers and the company is

ensuring proper safety for everyone. Thus, the safety

measures applied in the home country must be also

applied to the host country ensuring the safety of

everyone. This is called the “rational empathy test”

by the author. Furthermore, this chapter talks about

that unless a multinational can do business in the host

country without engaging in practices that violate

human rights, then corporations must simply leave

and go to other countries.

2. REFERENCES

[1] Schinzinger, Roland. Introduction to

Engineering Ethics. November 8, 1999