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Liam Anderson

Net ID: liama28

CPR E/EE-394

December 12, 2021

Ethics Essay

In this essay I will discuss the purpose of following a “Code of Ethics”, my personal

method of making ethical decisions, ethical issues discussed in class, and how “Virtue of Ethics”

relates to my case study.

Code of Ethics

There are a few good reasons to have a code of ethics. First, and the main purpose, is to

help make ethical and honest decisions. Engineers often make design decisions that affect many

others than themselves, so it is necessary to have a comprehensive set of principles to look at for

guidance. Have a code of ethics also saves time when you must make many ethical decisions.

Instead of evaluating all angles and possible ethical issues for every decision made, it is more

efficient to make one effort and create an all-inclusive code of ethics to reference. Lastly a code

of ethics helps with the discussion of ethics. Someone may question your decisions to which you

can point to your code of ethics.

Personal ethics

In my day-to-day life I use a combination of the golden rule, libertarian ethics, and virtue

ethics to help me make ethical decisions. For most decisions the gold rule is used where I ask

myself if I was the one being affected by this decision would I like it. Sometimes this can fail in

situations because not everyone likes what I like. This is where libertarian ethics helps. I must
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respect other people’s freedom of choice and not force my preferences on them. For trickier

ethical decisions that are not as clear what is right, I use virtue ethics in combination with

cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. I may ask myself “Is the action

consistent with who I am?”

Ethical Issues Discussed

In class we discussed a variety of ethical issues. We talked about the incident where Volkswagen

installed software that lowers emissions only when the cars emissions are being tested. Everyone

agreed this breaks many different ethical codes and virtues. I thought the more interesting question was

how much blame can be put on the engineers if they were told by higher ups to make this design

decision. When should they risk their jobs to stand up for unethical practices? We also talked about the

issue with the uses of voice recorded data from Amazon echoes. We agreed that the use of this data is

unethical and an invasion of privacy. The ethical issue I focused on the most was the uses of personal

identifiable information (PII) and when it is ethical to use. My classmates and I agree that it depends on

how the data is collected and if the people know and consent to the uses of their data.

Virtue of Ethics

Virtues like integrity, honesty, and responsibility come into play with the PII issue. When

deciding to use the PII it is not clear whether it is ethical or not and you must have integrity to make the

right decision. Honesty is also important so you can be honest with yourself about that impacts of your

decision and honest to those that it effects. Specify to those who’s data you are using. Responsibility

holds you accountable for the decisions you make, and an unethical decision may lead to people not

giving responsibilities in the future. The other virtues can apply to this situation in some form as well,

but I feel these help the most. My personal virtues can help as well like fortitude to help standup for

your ethical values, and temperance to be willing to not get paid for the job because your refused to

unethically use the PII.