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 elses 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 onehalf 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 turbinegenerators 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 engineers 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