UNIT-4

ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION

AND ENGINEERS RESPONSIBILITIES FOR SAFETY
Content
Engineering as Experimentation
Engineer as Responsible Experimenters
 Codes of Ethics – The Challenger, case study.
Assessment of Safety and Risk
Risk Benefit Analysis and Reducing Risk
Engineering as social experimentation.
A test under controlled conditions that is made to demonstrate a known
truth, to examine the validity of a hypothesis, or to determine the efficacy
of something previously untried. The process of conducting such a test is
called as a experimentation.
Similarity to Standard Experiments
 There are many similarities and differences between engineering experiments and other standard experiments.
 There are many aspects of engineering that make it appropriate to view engineering projects as experiments. The
three important aspects are as follows:
1. Engineering projects , like the standard experiments, are carried out in partial uncertainties. The uncertainties
may include in the,
 Design calculation
 Exact properties of raw materials used
 Constancies of material processing and fabrication
 Nature of working of final products

2. The final outcomes of engineering projects are also generally uncertain like those of other 
experiments For example, a nuclear reactor may reveal unexpected problems that endangered  the
surrounding people.
3. Similar to standard experiments, engineering experiments also requires thorough knowledge  about the
products at the pre-production and post-production stages. Thus engineering, like  any other
experimentation, requires constant monitoring, alertness, and vigil on the part of  the engineers at
every stage of the project.
 Contrast with standard experiments:
The study of knowing differences between engineering and other standard experiments is
helpful to the engineers to realize their special and moral responsibility. Some aspects of
these differences are given bellow:
1. Experimental control:
Experimental control is the most important difference
between engineering and
other standard experiments.
In standard experiments, experimental control invol
ves selecting members for two
different groups randomly. The first group members are given the special,
experimental treatment, whereas the members of other group are not given that
special treatment. Even both the groups are subjected to same environment ; the
group that was not given the special treatment is called control group.
In engineering experiments, usually there is no
control group. Sometimes the
control group is used only when the project is limited to laboratory experiments.
 Contrast with standard experiments:
2. Informed consent:
It is know that there is always a strong human interface in the use of the engineering experiments result; and also the
beneficiaries are invariably humans. Therefore engineering experiments are also viewed at par the medical experiments.
When a medicine or an engineering product is to be tested on a person, then the moral and legal rights is to get
‗informed consent‗ for him.Informed consent consists of two main elements:
1. Knowledge: The human subjects should be given all the information to make a reasonable decision.
2. Voluntariness: The human subjects should show their willingness to be a human model voluntarily. The person should not be
forced, deceived, fraud, etc.

 The manufacturer should give all the information about the potential risks and benefits of their products to their customers and
users.
The characteristics of a ‗valid consent‗
 The informed consent is called as ‗valid consent‗ when the following three conditions are met:

1.The consent should be given voluntarily and not by force.

2.The consent should be based on all information needed for the rational person to make reasonable decision.
3.The consentient should be physically and mentally fit; then he should be major i.e., above 18 years.
 ENGINEERS AS RESPONSIBLE EXPERIMENTERS:

The primary duty of morally responsible engineers is to protect the safety of human beings and
respect their rights of consent.
Engineers are primarily considered as technical enablers or facilitators, rather than being the sole
experimenters.
Engineers responsibility is shared with management, the public and others.
The other unique responsibility of engineers include monitoring projects, identifying risks, providing
customers and clients the required information to make reasonable decisions. While exercising
engineering duties, the engineers should display the virtue of being morally responsible person.

General features of moral responsible engineers:

1. Conscientiousness
2. Relevant information
3. Moral Autonomy
4. Accountability
Conscientiousness:
Conscientiousness means commitment to live according to certain values. It
implies conscientiousness.
Engineers have to be sensitive to a range of moral values and responsibilities,
which are relevant in a given situation.
Also engineers should have the willing to develop the skill and apply the
effort needed to reach the best balance possible among various
considerations.
Open eyes, open s and an open mind‗ are required to evaluate a given
situation, its implication and to determine who are involved or affected.
The primary duty of morally responsible engineers is to protect the safety of
human beings and respect their rights of consent.
Relevant information:
Conscientiousness is impossible without relevant factual information.
Engineers have to show the commitment to obtain and properly gauge all the information
related to meeting one‗s moral obligations.
The two general ways of losing perspective on the context of one‗s work are given below.
1. To grasp the context of one's work, one should be aware of implication of that work.
2. To shifts the responsibility and blames the others in the organization.Thus, conceiving
engineering as social experimentation, it is important that engineers act as responsible
agents. The responsible agents require
Imaginative forecasting of possible bad side effects.
The development of an attitude of ‗defensive engineering‗ and ‗preventive technology‗
Careful monitoring of projects and
Respect for people rights to give informed consent
Moral autonomy:

The moral autonomy is the ability to think critically and independently about moral issues and
apply this moral thinking to situations that arise during the professional engineering practice.
It is understood that an individual personality depends on the integration of his moral benefits
and attitude.
When one‗s labor and skills are sold, then it is an illusion to think that the person is not
morally autonomous.
As an experimenter, an engineer has to undergo an extensive and updated training to form his
identity as a professional.
There will be a personal involvement in one‗s work.

The magnitude of moral autonomy to be experienced by engineering is highly influenced by

the attitude of company‗s managements.
Where there is a treat for engineers‗ moral autonomy, then engineers can look for moral
support from their professional societies and outside organization.
Accountability:

The term ‗accountability‗ means being responsible, liable, answerable or obligated.

In proper terms, the accountability refers to the general tendency of being willing to
submit ones action to any type of moral scrutiny and be responsive to others assessment.
It involves a willingness to present morally convincing reason for ones action and
conduct.
Morally responsible people are expected to accept morally responsibility for their action.
According to Stanely Milgram, people are not willing to accept personal accountability
when placed under authority.
There exist a lot of difference and separation between casual influence and moral
accountability in all professions including engineering.
Because of modern engineering practices, the complication in accepting one‗s moral
accountability further worsened.
Codes of Ethics
One of the trademarks of contemporary professions is code of ethics.
Codes of ethics are propagated by various professional society.
These codes of ethics are guidelines for specific group of professionalism
to help them perform their roles; to know how to conduct themselves; and
to know how to resolve around various ethical issues.
These codes convey the rights, duties, and obligation of the members of
the profession.
 Codes of Ethics
 The primary aspects of codes of ethics are to provide the basic framework for ethical judgment
for a professional.
 The codes of ethics are also referred to as the codes of conduct, express the commitment to
ethical conduct shared by members of a profession.
 It expresses the ethical principles and standards in a coherent, comprehensive and accessible
manner.
 It also defines the role and responsibility of profession.
 It helps the professionals to apply moral and ethical principles to the specific situations
encountered in professional practice.
 These codes are based on five canons i.e., principle of ethics-integrity, competence, individual
responsibility, professional responsibility, and human concerns.
 It also be noted that ethical codes do not establish new ethical principles. They use only those
principles that are already well established and widely accepted in society.
Positive Roles of Codes of Ethics
The code of ethics propagated by professional societies play a vital role. They
are,
Inspiration
Guidance
Support for responsible conduct
Deterring and disciplining unethical professional conduct
Educational and promotion of mutual understanding
Contributing to positive public image of profession
Protecting the status quo suppressing dissent within the profession and
Promoting business interest through restraint of trade.
 Limitations of Codes of Ethics
The four major limitations of codes of ethics are as follows:
Codes of ethics are broad guidelines, restricted to general and vague
wordings/phrases. The codes cannot be applied directly to all situations. Also it is
impossible to predict all aspects of moral problems that can arise in a complex,
dynamic engineering profession.
Engineering codes often have internal conflicts, which may result in moral dilemmas.
That is, several entries in codes overlap with each other, so there are internal
conflicts. But the code doesn’t provide a method for resolving these conflicts.
The codes cannot serves as the final moral authority for professional conduct.
The proliferation of codes of ethics for different of engineering gives a feeling that
ethical code is relative.