Professional Ethics for Engineers

CHE 400
Summer 2016

Faculty of Engineering/
Chemical Engineering
Jordan University of Science and Technology

1
Most of the material used in this presentation were obtained from Ethics in engineering (2004),by Martin and Schinzinger
Vocabulary Words

Etiquette

Laws

Morals

Ethics
2.1 Interaction Rules

Etiquette

rules of acceptable personal behavior and courtesy

e.g. proper dress, answering the phone, language, talking about
others

Laws

a system of rules and punishments clearly defined

e.g. legal driving age

Morals

personal rules of right and wrong behavior

e.g. derived from a persons upbringing, religious beliefs

Ethics

a code or system of rules defining moral behavior for a
particular society

Case Study: Murder

Legal?

Moral?

Ethical?

Good Etiquette?

Answers:

Illegal

Immoral

Unethical

Bad etiquette!

Case
Study: Driving over the speed limit
when you are late for class

Legal?

Moral?

Ethical?

Good Etiquette?

Case
Study: Driving over the speed limit
when you are late for class

Legal?

Moral?

Ethical?

Good Etiquette?

Answers:

Illegal

Moral to some, immoral to others

Unethical

Bad etiquette if it effects other drivers

CaseStudy: Driving over the speed limit
when you are having a friend with a
serious health problem

Legal?

Moral?

Ethical?

Good Etiquette?

Answers:

Illegal

Moral

Ethical

Etiquette does not apply
What are Ethics?

Ethics = Morals, Morality

Morals, Morality = system of moral values and (moral)
principles as guidelines for someone's (moral) conduct and
(moral) judgment

Ethics = scientific discipline

Systematically, critically, methodological, reflection about the
morality/morals of man

Traditions: philosophy and moral theology
Main objective of ethics:
(P. Ricoeur, 1913-2005) : the most human possible in a just
society

9
Why Engineering Ethics?

Engineering Solutions many times have double implications

Create Benefits (Nuclear Power for Generating electricity)

Raise Moral Challenges (Nuclear Power for destruction and killing)

It is important to make our contributions at the highest

technical (competence, quality, etc.) and ethical (safety,
environment, etc) levels

.
()

10
What is Engineering Ethics?

Engineering ethics is the study of the decisions, policies, and

values that are morally desirable in engineering practice and
research. (Martin and Schinzinger 2004)

ABET
Engineers shall hold paramount (Supreme) the safety, health
and welfare (well being) of the public in the performance of
their professional duties

Documented cases of reliable stories illustrating how

engineers can discharge their professional responsibilities
while constrained by the social, political and organizational
forces under which they all work.

11
Why Teaching Engineering Ethics?
To acquire the following moral competences:
1. Moral sensibility: the ability to recognize social and
ethical issues in technology.
2. Moral analysis skills: the ability to analyse moral
problems in terms of facts, values, stakeholders and their
interests.
3. Moral creativity: the ability to think out different options
for action in the light of (conflicting) moral values and
the relevant facts.
4. Moral judgment skills: the ability to give a moral
judgment on the basis of different ethical theories or
frameworks including professional ethics and common
sense morality
12
 Why Teaching Engineering Ethics?

5. Moral decision-making skills: the ability to reflect on

different ethical theories and frameworks and to make a
decision based on that reflection.
6. Moral argumentation skills: the ability to morally justify
ones actions and to discuss and evaluate them together
with other engineers and non-engineers.

Ethical Moral Morally

case Analysis Options reflection accepted
issue judgment
action

13
Benefits from studying Engineering Ethics

1. Increasing our moral awareness

2. Cogent (logical) moral reasoning
3. Moral coherence (consistency)
4. Moral imagination
5. Moral communication
6. Moral reasonableness
7. Respect for persons
8. Tolerance and diversity (variety)
9. Moral hope
10. Moral integrity (truthfulness)

14
15
Cause of damage

The loss of Columbia was a result of damage sustained
during launch when a piece of foam insulation the size of
a small briefcase broke off the Space Shuttle external tank
(the main propellant tank) under the aerodynamic forces
of launch. The debris struck the leading edge of the left
wing, damaging the Shuttle's thermal protection system
(TPS), which protects it from heat generated with the
atmosphere during re-entry. While Columbia was still in
orbit, some engineers suspected damage, but NASA
managers limited the investigation, on the grounds that
little could be done even if problems were found

16
Some of Engineering Ethics Scopes

1. Engineering ethics are social experiments that generate

both possibilities and risk

Space shuttle Columbia explosion (2003): Things to learn:

Engineers accept and share responsibility of their work

Alert others about sources of danger

Try to expect (imagine) sources of hazard

Practice hazard and operability (HAZOP)

Preventive ethics

17
Some of Engineering Ethics Scopes

2. Moral values should be embedded in engineering

i.e. Excellence and ethics go together

Workplace area

Responsibilities towards local community

3. Personal commitment and Meaning

Try to see the influence of your work on the society

Try to make every engineer in the team involved

4. Promoting responsible conduct vs. punishing wrong

doing

Financial scandals in the US (Enron company as an example)

18
 Some of Engineering Ethics Scopes

5. Ethical Dilemmas

Conflict between ethical values

SUV, fossil fuel, pollutants, etc

6. Micro and Macro issues

Micro: Decision made by the company and an individual

Macro: Concern more global issues

7. Caution optimism about technology

Nuclear energy

Global warming (CO2 emission levels, etc.)

19
 Personal Ethics - examples

Software piracy ()
Copying of homework or tests
Income taxes
Borrowing nuts and bolts, office supplies from
employer
Copying of Videos or CDs
Plagiarism
Using the copy machine at work

20
 Examples

Computers:

Developed & adopted over about three decades

Significant impacts on society:

Not well understood or nor always predicted, e.g:

The Y2K bug

However largely accepted as a positive technology

Nuclear power stations

Developed & adopted over about three decades

Significant impacts on society:

Not well understood nor always predicted, eg. Chernobyl

Widespread concern & installed capacity in decline

21
 Examples

 Introduction of genetically modified

(GM) foods:
Companies have not always revealed GM
ingredients

 Legal requirements under development

Electromagnetic radiation from cellular
phones:
Some companies provide information,
headphones
22
some cases

1912: Titanic
 some cases (Bohpal, India)
.
Bohpal, India
A leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals from
the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands
of people.
The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the
government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787
deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate that 3,000
died within weeks and that another 8,000 have since died
from gas-related diseases.
In June 2010, seven ex-employees, including the former
chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by
negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a
fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment allowed
by law. An eighth former employee was also convicted but
died before judgment was passed.
25
some cases

1986: Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster
some cases

1986: Tchernobyl: Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
some cases

2000: Concorde Crash (Paris)

Air France Flight 4590 was a Concorde flight operated
by Air France which was scheduled to run from Charles
de Gaulle International Airport near Paris, to John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York City. On 25
July 2000, it crashed into a hotel in Gonesse, France. All
one hundred passengers and nine crew members on
board the flight died. On the ground, four people were
killed and one left with serious injuries.

29
Accident investigation

The official investigation was conducted by France's

accident investigation bureau, the BEA, and it was published
on 14 December 2004.[11] Only one video was found of the
flight.

30
 Conclusions
The investigators concluded that:

The aircraft was overloaded by about a ton above the maximum safe take off weight.
Any effect on takeoff performance from this excess weight was negligible.

After reaching take-off speed, the tyre of the number 2 wheel was cut by a metal
strip lying on the runway, which came from the thrust reverser cowl door of the
number 3 engine of a Continental Airlines DC-10 that had taken off from the runway
several minutes before. This strip, installed in Houston, had been neither
manufactured nor installed in accordance with the procedures as defined by the
manufacturer.

The aircraft was airworthy and the crew were qualified. The landing gear that later
failed to retract had not shown serious problems in the past. Despite the crew being
trained and certified, no plan existed for the simultaneous failure of two engines on
the runway, as it was considered highly unlikely.

Aborting the take-off would have led to a high-speed runway excursion and collapse
of the landing gear, which also would have caused the aircraft to crash.

While two of the engines had problems and one of them was shut down, the damage
to the plane's structure was so severe that the crash would have been inevitable,
even with the engines operating normally.

31
some cases
Conclusions?
- Incidents, Accidents, Disasters only?
- More risky technology? Less risky technology?
- Responsibility: the company or the engineer?
- Economics vs ethics?
-