LECTURE 1

PROFESSIONAL CODE OF ETHICS FOR

ENGINEERS
 What is Engineering?
• A profession in which knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences
gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop
ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit
of mankind
- ABET

• Engineers built some of the largest polluting projects, yet they are the ones
who developed the most sophisticated technology to clean the environment
from pollution.
• The work of engineers can affect public health and safety and can influence
business practices and even politics.

2
 What is Engineering?
Engineers create millions of products and services that we use
every day…

3
 Innovation
• These innovations can greatly benefit mankind but they
also have the potential to cause harm

Nuclear Power Plant Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster (1986)

4
 Sociological Analysis of Professionalism
(Occupation vs. Profession)

• If we distinguish between an occupation, which is simply a way to

make a living, and a profession, the question is how a transition from a
‘‘mere’’ occupation to a profession (or an occupation that has
professional status) is accomplished.
• The answer is to be found in a series of characteristics that are marks
of professional status.
• Although probably no profession has all of these characteristics to the
highest degree possible, the more characteristics an occupation has,
the more secure it is in its professional status.

5
Characteristics of a Profession
• Extensive training:
• Entrance into a profession typically requires an extensive period of training of an intellectual
nature.
• Professionals’ knowledge and skills obtained through formal education, usually in an academic
institution
• Vital knowledge and skills: Professionals’ knowledge and skills are vital to the well-being of the
larger society. A society that has a sophisticated scientific and technological base is especially
dependent on its professional elite.
• Control of services:
• Professions usually have a monopoly on, or at least considerable control over the provision of
professional services in their area.
• The profession usually also gains considerable control over professional schools by establishing
accreditation standards that regulate the quality, curriculum content, and number of such schools.
• Autonomy in the workplace:
• Professionals often have an unusual degree of autonomy in the workplace.
• This is especially true of professionals in private practice, but even professionals who work in
large organizations may exercise a large degree of individual judgment and creativity in carrying
out their professional responsibilities.
• Claim to ethical regulation: The degree of control that professions possess over the services that
are vital to the well-being of the rest of the community provides an obvious temptation for abuse, so
most professions attempt to limit these abuses by regulating themselves for the public benefit and
by establishing a professional code of ethics.
6
 Attributes of a profession
• Work that requires sophisticated skills, the use of judgment, and
the exercise of discretion. Also, the work is not routine and is not
capable of being mechanized.
• Membership in the profession requires extensive formal
education, not simply practical training or apprenticeship.
• The public allows special societies or organizations that are controlled
by members of the profession to set standards for admission to the
profession, to set standards of conduct for members, and to enforce
these standards.
• Significant public good results from the practice of the profession

7
 Attributes of a profession
• In a profession, “judgment” refers to making significant decisions
based on formal training, knowledge and experience. In general,
the decisions will have serious impact on people’s lives and will
often have important financial implications.
• “Discretion” can have two different meanings.
– Being discrete in the performance of one’s duties by keeping
information about customers, clients, and patients confidential.
– Discretion involves the ability to make decisions autonomously.
This definition is similar in many ways to that of the term
“judgment”

8
 Two Models of Professionalism
• The Business Model:
An occupation is primarily oriented toward making a profit within
the boundaries set by law. Just like any other business, a profession
sells a product or service in the marketplace for a profit.

• The Professional Model:

Professionals have an implicit trust relationship with the larger
public. The terms of this trust relationship, sometimes referred to as
a ‘‘social contract’’ with the public, are that professionals agree to
regulate their practice so that it promotes the public good.
• Professionals agree to regulate themselves in accordance with high
standards of technical competence and ethical practice so that they do
not take unfair advantage of the public
9
 What is Ethics?

• Ethics is synonymous with morality

• Morals are concepts based on given values (i.e.

religion) or socially acquired values

• These values are either:

1) Required (obligatory) – respect for life
2) Permissible (allowed) – killing in self defense
3) Desirable (a wanted good) – poverty reduction
4) Unacceptable (bad) – betrayal, cheating
10
 Types of Ethics
• Common Morality: the set of moral beliefs shared by almost everyone.
• designed primarily to protect individuals from various types of violations or invasions of their personhood by
others. (i.e., I can violate your personhood by killing you, lying to you, stealing from you, and so forth.)
• contains positive or aspirational component such as ‘‘Prevent killing,’’ ‘‘Prevent deceit,’’ ‘‘Prevent cheating,’’
and other more clearly positive precepts such as “Help the needy” , “Promote human happiness”, “protect the
natural environment”.
• common morality makes a distinction between an evaluation of a person’s actions and an evaluation of his
intention.
• Personal Morality/Ethics: the set of moral beliefs that a person holds.
• For most of us, our personal moral beliefs closely parallel the precepts of common morality.
• Professional Ethics: the set of standards adopted by professionals.
• unlike common morality and personal morality, professional ethics is usually stated in a formal code
• Professional societies usually have code of ethics or code of professional conduct.
• when one is in a professional occupation, professional ethics is supposed to take precedence over personal
morality
• E,g., when a patient enters a physician’s examining room, she can expect the conversations there to be kept confidential, even if she
does not know anything about the personal morality of the physician.

11
 PERSONAL VS. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
• Personal ethics deals with how we treat each others in our day-
to-day lives. Many of these principles are applicable to ethical
situations that occur in business and engineering.
• Professional ethics often involves choices on an organizational
level rather than a personal level. Problems will seem different
because they involve relationships between two corporations,
between a corporation and the government, or between
corporations and groups of individuals.

12
 Preventive/Prohibitive Ethics

• Much of ethics focuses on what one should

NOT do
• Codes of conduct are formulated in terms of rules that can
be enforced…
• …and it is easier to enforce rules that specify what is
prohibited
• According to NSPE rules: ‘‘engineers shall not reveal facts, data, or information without
the prior consent of the client or employer except as authorized by law or this Code.’’
• ‘‘engineers shall approve only those engineering documents that are in conformity with
applicable standards.’’

13
 Aspirational Ethics
• Aspirational ethics involves a spectrum of engineering activities ranging from
designing a new energy-saving device in the course of one’s ordinary
employment to using one’s vacation time to design and help install a water
purification system in an underdeveloped country.
• Engineers do not choose this profession to only prevent disasters but are
rather attracted by the prospect of making a difference in the world, and
doing so in a positive way.
• The positive face of engineering ethics has taken second place to the
negative face in most engineering ethics textbooks

14
 What is Engineering Ethics?
• Engineering ethics is a look into morality within the
engineering profession: a nexus between policies,
actions and values
• What engineers do, individually or collectively, is one
thing…what they should do is another
• Negative face of Engineering Ethics (Preventive Ethics)
vs. Positive face of Engineering Ethics (Aspirational
Ethics)

15
 Why Study Ethics?

“Why should I study ethics? I am a good person”

Ethical Unethical

16
 Why Study Ethics?

• You are not being asked to study ethics in general

• You are being asked to study your profession’s ethics
• Just being a good person does not mean you are
well prepared for the ethical challenges you will face
during your career
• The public, employers, and clients depend on you to
do the right thing

17
 Why Study Ethics?
• It can be complicated, controversial
• It strengthens your ability to reason clearly about moral
questions
• It helps to build a habit of becoming morally concerned
about the needs and rights of others

18
 Why Study Ethics?
Practical skills that will help in improving the ability
to reflect carefully on moral issues:
1. Moral Awareness: recognizing a problem
2. Moral Reasoning: making clear, logical, and
convincing arguments

3. Moral Coherence: being consistent in your moral

thinking/behavior

19
 Why Study Ethics?

4. Moral Resolve: discerning responses to solution

5. Respect for Persons: having concern for others

6. Tolerance of Diversity: tolerating other moral
perspectives

7. Integrity: having moral consistency between career

and personal life

20
 ETHICS AND THE LAW
• Role of law in engineering ethics: The practice of engineering is
governed by many laws on the international, federal, state, and
local levels. Many of these laws are based on ethical principles,
although many are purely of a practical rather than a
philosophical nature.
• There is also a distinction between what is legal and what is
ethical. Many things that are legal could be considered unethical.
For example, designing a process that releases a known toxic
unregulated substance into the environment is probably
unethical, although it is legal.

21
 ETHICS AND THE LAW
• Conversely, just because something is illegal doesn’t mean that it is
unethical. For example, there might be substances that were once
thought to be harmful, but have now been shown to be safe, that you
wish to incorporate into a product. If the law has not caught up with the
latest scientific findings, it might be illegal to release these substances
into the environment, even though there is no ethical problem in doing
so.
• As an engineer, you are always minimally safe if you follow the
requirements of the applicable laws. But in engineering ethics, we seek to
go beyond the dictates of the law. Our interest is in areas where ethical
principles conflict and there is no legal guidance for how to resolve the
conflict.

22
 The Pinto Case:
• On August 10, 1978, a Ford Pinto was hit from behind on a highway in
Indiana. The impact of the collision caused the Pinto’s fuel tank to
rupture and burst into flames, leading to the deaths of three teenage
girls riding in the car. This was not the first time that a Pinto had caught
on fire as a result of a rear-end collision. In the seven years following the
introduction of the Pinto, there had been some 50 lawsuits related to
rear-end collisions. However, this time Ford was charged in a criminal
court for the deaths of the passengers.

• This case was a significant departure from the norm and had important
implications for the Ford engineers and managers.

23
 The Pinto Case:
• A civil lawsuit result in Ford being required to pay damages to the victim’s
estates.

• A criminal proceeding, on the other hand, would indicate that

Ford was grossly negligent in the deaths of the passengers
and could result in jail terms for the Ford engineers or managers who
worked on the Pinto.

• The case against Ford hinged on charges that it was known

that the gas-tank design was flawed and was not in line with
accepted engineering standards, even though it did meet
applicable federal safety standards at the time. During the
trial, it was determined that Ford engineers were aware of the
dangers of this design, but management, concerned with
getting the Pinto to market rapidly at a price competitive with
subcompact cars already introduced or planned by other
manufacturers, had constrained the engineers to use this design.
24
 The Pinto Case:
• The dilemma faced by the design engineers who worked on the
Pinto was to balance the safety of the people who would be riding in
the car against the need to produce the Pinto at a price that would
be competitive in the market. They had to attempt to balance their
duty to the public against their duty to their employer.

• Ultimately, the attempt by Ford to save a few dollars in

manufacturing costs led to the expenditure of millions of dollars in
defending lawsuits and payments to victims. Of course, there were
also uncountable costs in lost sales due to bad publicity and a
public perception that Ford did not engineer its products to be safe.

25
 The Pinto Case:

• For Ford engineers and managers, the question

became the following: Where does an engineering
team strike the balance between safety and
affordability and, simultaneously, between the ability
of the company to sell the car and make a profit?

26
 National Society for Professional Engineers
Preamble

“Engineering is an important and learned profession. As members

of this profession, engineers are expected to exhibit the highest
standards of honesty and integrity. Engineering has a direct and
vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the
services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality,
fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the
public health, safety, and welfare. Engineers must perform under
a standard of professional behavior that requires adherence to the
highest principles of ethical conduct.”

27
 National Society for Professional Engineers
Fundamental Canons

• Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:

1. Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public
2. Perform services only in areas of their competence
3. Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner
4. Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees
5. Avoid deceptive acts
6. Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance
the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession.

28
 Summary
• The work of engineers can affect public health and safety and
can influence business practices and even politics.
• Several notorious cases that have received a great deal of
media attention in the past few years have led engineers to
gain an increased sense of their professional responsibilities.
• The goal of this course is to sensitize you to ethical issues
before you have to confront them.
• Moral Autonomy: the ability to think critically and
independently about moral issues and to apply this moral
thinking to situations that arise in the course of professional
engineering practice.
• Not everything legal is ethical

29