Professional Ethics and Human Values

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Professional Ethics And Human Values
Presentation · May 2006

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.16917.32485
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Professional Ethics And Human Values by Dr. Syed Ibrahim
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND HUMAN VALUES
Dr. Syed Mohamed Ibrahim / VT836(PROFESSOR)

GE 2021-Professional Ethics And Human Values
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
VEL TECH ENGINEERING COLLEGE
AVADI, CHENNAI
UNIT I – HUMAN VALUES

The Story of a Carpenter
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans
to leave the house- building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife
enjoying his extended family.
He would miss his paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The
contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one
more house as a personal favor.
The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his
work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an
unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the
contractor handed over the house key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he
said, “it is my parting gift to you.”
What a shock! What a Shame! If only he had known he was building his own house,
he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he built none
too well.
(Modified from LIVING WITH HONOUR by SHIV KHERA)
Do we find ourselves in similar situations as the carpenter?
Moving through our work hours fast paced, driven to “get the job done”, without
much thought to moral values.
How do we regain our focus as individuals and organizations?
This is the challenge for the employee and the employer.
Ethics are fundamental standards of conduct by which we work as a professional.

VALUES
 Values are individual in nature.

 Values are comprised of personal concepts of responsibility, entitlement and
respect.
 Values are shaped by personal experience, may change over the span of a
lifetime and may be influenced by lessons learned.
 Values may vary according to an individual’s cultural, ethnic and/or faith-
based background.
“Never change your core values.”

In spite of all the change around you, decide upon what you will never change: your
core values.
Take your time to decide what they are but once you do, do not compromise on them
for any reason.
Integrity is one such value.
MORALS
 Morals are guiding principles that every citizen should hold.

 Morals are foundational concepts defined on both an individual and societal
level.
 At the most basic level, morals are the knowledge of the difference between
right and wrong.
PERSONAL ETHICS
 Simply put, all individuals are morally autonomous beings with the power and
right to choose their values, but it does not follow that all choices and all value
systems have an equal claim to be called ethical.
 Actions and beliefs inconsistent with the Six Pillars of Character -
trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship - are
simply not ethical.
PERSONAL ETHICS - everyday examples
• Software piracy
• Expense account padding
• Copying of homework or tests
• Income taxes
• “Borrowing” nuts and bolts, office supplies from employer
• Copying of Videos or CD’s
• Plagiarism
• Using the copy machine at work
RELIGION AND ETHICS

• The “Golden Rule” is a basic tenet in almost all religions: Christian, Hindu,
Jewish, Confucian, Buddhist, Muslim.
• “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

• “Treat others as you would like them to treat you” (Christian).
• “Hurt not others with that which pains you” (Buddhist)
• “What is hateful to yourself do not do to your fellow men”
(Judaism)
• “No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that
which he desires for himself” (Islam)
MORALITY AND ETHICS
 Concerns the goodness of voluntary human conduct that affects the self or
other living things
 Morality (Latin mores) usually refers to any aspect of human action
 Ethics (Greek ethos) commonly refers only to professional behavior
 Ethics consist of the application of fundamental moral principles and reflect
our dedication to fair treatment of each other, and of society as a whole.
 An individual’s own values can result in acceptance or rejection of society’s
ethical standards because even thoughtfully developed ethical rules can
conflict with individual values.
ASPECTS OF ETHICS
There are two aspects to ethics:

 The first involves the ability to discern right from wrong, good from evil and
propriety from impropriety.
 The second involves the commitment to do what is right, good and proper.
Ethics entails action.
An ALGEBRA course will teach you ALGEBRA.

A HISTORY course will teach you HISTORY.
A MANAGEMENT course will teach you principles of MANAGEMENT.
But, Will an ETHICS course teach you to be ETHICAL?

Think !
UNIT II - ENGINEERING ETHICS

“Technology can have no legitimacy unless it inflicts no harm”-Adm.H.G. Rickover,
father of the US nuclear navy.
– What does Adm. Rickover mean by this?

– Should engineers avoid technology that has the potential for inflicting
harm on a society or its members?
• Engineers have an ethical and social responsibility to themselves, their clients

and society.
• Practically (although there is much debate about this), engineering ethics is
about balancing cost, schedule, and risk.
ENGINEERING ETHICS is:
• the study of moral issues and decisions confronting individuals and

organizations involved in engineering and
• the study of related questions about moral ideals, character, policies and
relationships of people and organizations involved in technological activity.
TRAINING IN PREVENTIVE ETHICS
• Stimulating the moral imagination

• Recognizing ethical issues
• Developing analytical skills
• Eliciting a sense of responsibility
• Tolerating disagreement and ambiguity
IMPEDIMENTS TO RESPONSIBILITY
• Self-interest.
• Fear.
• Self-deception.
• Ignorance.
• Egocentric tendencies.
• Microscopic vision.
• Groupthink.
QUESTIONABLE ENGINEERING PRACTICES
•Trimming – “smoothing of irregularities to make data look extremely accurate

and precise”
• Cooking – “retaining only those results that fit the theory and discarding
others”.
• Forging – “inventing some or all of the research data…”
• Plagiarism – misappropriating intellectual property.
• Conflicts of interest (such as accepting gifts.)
– actual
– potential
– apparent
CLEARLY WRONG ENGINEERING PRACTICES
• Lying
• Deliberate deception
• Withholding information
• Failing to adequately promote the dissemination of information
• Failure to seek out the truth
• Revealing confidential or proprietary information
• Allowing one’s judgment to be corrupted.
SENSES OF EXPRESSION OF ENGG. ETHICS
 Ethics is an activity and area of inquiry. It is the activity of understanding

moral values, resolving moral issues and the area of study resulting from that
activity.
 When we speak of ethical problems, issues and controversies, we mean to
distinguish them from non moral problems.
 Ethics is used to refer to the particular set of beliefs, attitudes and habits that
a person or group displays concerning moralities.
 Ethics and its grammatical variants can be used as synonyms for ‘morally
correct’.
VARIETIES or APPROACHES OF MORAL ISSUES
MICRO-ETHICS emphasizes typically everyday problems that can take on

significant proportions in an engineer’s life or entire engineering office.
MACRO-ETHICS addresses societal problems that are often shunted aside and are
not addressed until they unexpectedly resurface on a regional or national scale.
MORAL PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING

(SOME EXAMPLES)
4.1. An inspector discovered faulty construction equipment and applied a violation
tag, preventing its use. The supervisor, a construction manager viewed the case as a
minor abrasion of the safety regulations and ordered the removal of the tag to speed
up the project. When the inspector objected to this, he was threatened with
disciplinary action.
4.2. An electric utility company applied for a permit to operate a nuclear power plant.
The licensing agency was interested in knowing what emergency measures had
been established for humans safety in case of reactor malfunctioning. The utility
engineers described the alarm system and arrangements with local hospitals for
treatment. They did not emphasize that this measures applied to plant personnel
only and that they had no plans for the surrounding population. When enquired about
their omission, they said it was not their responsibility.
4.3. A chemical plant dumped wastes in a landfill. Hazardous substances found their
way into the underground water table. The plant’s engineers were aware of the
situation but did not change the method of disposal because their competitors did it
the same cheap way, and no law explicitly forbade the practice.
4.4. Electronics Company ABC geared up for production of its own version of a
popular new item. The product was not yet ready for sale, but even so, pictures and
impressive specifications appeared in advertisements. Prospective customers were
led to believe that it was available off the shelf and were drawn away from competing
lines.
TYPES OF INQUIRIES
1. NORMATIVE INQUIRY
These are about ‘what ought to be’ and ‘what is good’. These questions identify and
also justify the morally desirable norms or standards.
Some of the questions are:

A. How far engineers are obligated to protect public safety in given
situations?
B. When should engineers start whistle blowing on dangerous practices of
their employers?
C. Whose values are primary in taking a moral decision, employee, public
or govt?
D. Why are engineers obligated to protect public safety?
E. When is govt justified in interfering on such issues and why?
2. CONCEPTUAL INQUIRY:
These questions should lead to clarifications on concepts, principles and issues in

ethics. Examples are:
A) What is ‘SAFETY’ and how is it related to ‘RISK’

B) ‘Protect the safety, health and welfare of public’-What does this
statement mean?
C) What is a bribe?
D) What is a ‘profession’ and who are ‘professionals’?
3. FACTUAL (DESCRIPTIVE) INQUIRIES
These are inquiries used to uncover information using scientific techniques. These
inquiries get to information about business realities, history of engineering
profession, procedures used in assessment of risks and engineers psychology.
Why study ENGINEERING ETHICS
ENGINEERING ETHICS is a means to increase the ability of concerned engineers,

managers, citizens and others to responsibly confront moral issues raised by
technological activities.
MORAL DILEMMMA
There are three types of complexities.
 VAGUENESS: This complexity arises due to the fact that it is not clear to
individuals as to which moral considerations or principles apply to their
situation.
 CONFLICTING REASONS: Even when it is perfectly clear as to which moral

principle is applicable to one’s situation, there could develop a situation where
in two or more clearly applicable moral principles come into conflict.
 DISAGREEMENT: Individuals and groups may disagree how to interpret,

apply and balance moral reasons in particular situations.
Steps in confronting MORAL DILEMMAS:

i) Identify the relevant moral factors and reasons.
ii) Gather all available facts that are pertinent to the moral factors
involved.
iii) Rank the moral considerations in the order of their importance as they
apply to the situation.
iv) Consider alternative course of action, tracing the full implications of
each, as ways of solving dilemma.
v) Talk with colleagues, seeking the suggestions and perspectives of the
dilemma.
vi) Arrive at a carefully reasoned judgment by weighing all the relevant
moral factors and reasons in light of facts.
All the above steps are distinct, even though they are inter-
related and can often be taken jointly
MORAL AUTONOMY
• This is viewed as the skill and habit of thinking rationally about ethical
issues on the basis of moral concerns independently or by self-
determination.
• Autonomous individuals think for themselves and do not assume that
customs are always right.
• They seek to reason and live by general principles.
• Their motivation is to do what is morally reasonable for its own sake,
maintaining integrity, self-respect, and respect for others.
“One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to
accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells
him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty… is in reality expressing the highest
respect for the law.” Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Letter from a Birmingham Jail,
1963.
A person becomes morally autonomous by improving various practical skills listed

below:
i) Proficiency is recognizing moral problems and issues in engineering.

ii) Skill in comprehending, clarifying and critically assessing arguments
on opposing sides of moral issues.
iii) The ability to form consistent and comprehensive viewpoints based
upon consideration of relevant facts.
iv) Awareness of alternate responses to issues and creative solutions for
practical difficulties.
v) Sensitivity to genuine difficulties and subtleties
vi) Increased precision in the use of a common ethical language
necessary to express and also defend one’s views adequately.
vii) Appreciation of possibilities of using rational dialogue in resolving moral
conflicts and the need for tolerance of differences in perspective
among orally reasonable people.
viii) A sense of importance of integrating one’s professional life and
personal convictions i.e. maintaining one’s moral integrity.
KOHLBERG’S THEORY
STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
• Pre-conventional Level
Whatever benefits oneself or avoids punishment. This is the level of
development of all young children. -Avoid punishment & Gain Reward
• Conventional Level
Uncritical acceptance of one’s family, group or society are accepted as final
standard of morality. Most adults do not mature beyond this stage. -1.Gain
Approval & Avoid Disapproval & 2. Duty & Guilt
• Post-conventional Level
Motivation to do what is morally reasonable for its own sake, rather than
solely from ulterior motives, with also a desire to maintain their moral integrity,
self-respect and the respect of other autonomous individuals. They are
‘Morally autonomous’ people. -1. Agreed upon rights & 2. Personal moral
standards
GILLIGAN’S THEORY
 Pre-conventional Level
This is the same as Kohlberg’s first level in that the person is preoccupied
with self centered reasoning, caring for the needs and desires of self.
 Conventional
Here the thinking is opposite in that, one is preoccupied with not hurting
others and a willingness to sacrifice one’s own interests in order to help or
nurture others (or retain friendship).
 Post-conventional Level
Achieved through context-oriented reasoning, rather than by applying abstract
rules ranked in a hierarchy of importance. Here the individual becomes able to
strike a reasoned balance between caring about other people and pursuing
one’s own self-interest while exercising one’s rights.
Differences between the TWO THEORIES
KOHLBERG GILLIGAN
I. Ethics of rules and rights Ethics of care
II. Studies based on well educated, Studies included females and colored
white male’s only, tending male bias. peoples
III. Application of abstract rules ranked Application of context-oriented reasoning.
in the order of importance
IV. Studies were hypothesized for both Study was conducted on both genders
the genders even though the study was and it was found, men based their
conducted mostly on males reasoning on ‘justice’ and women based
theirs on ‘care’
HEINZ’S DILEMMA
The famous example used by Kohlberg was called “Heinz’s dilemma”. A woman
living in Europe would die of cancer unless she was given an expensive drug. Her
husband, Heinz, could not afford it. But the local pharmacist, who had invented the
drug at only one tenth of the sale price refused to sell it to Heinz who could only raise
half the required money from borrowings. Desperation drives Heinz to break into the
pharmacy and steal the drug to save his wife.
When respondents were asked whether and why Heinz should or should not steal a
drug to save his wife from a life-threatening illness. The responses of the individuals
were compared with a prototypical response of individuals at particular stages of
moral reasoning. Kohlberg noted that irrespective of the level of the individual the
response could be same, but the reasoning could be different.
For example, if a child reasoning at a ‘preconventional’ level might say that it is not
right to steal because it is against law and someone might see you.
At a ‘conventional’ level, an individual might argue that it is not right to steal because
it is against law and laws are necessary for society to function.
At a ‘postconventional’ level, one may argue that stealing is wrong because is

against law and it is immoral.
CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY
CONTROVERSY:
• All individuals will not arrive at same verdict during their exercising their moral
autonomy.
• Aristotle noted long ago that morality is not as precise and clear-cut as
arithmetic.
• Aim of teaching engg ethics is not to get unanimous conformity of outlook by
indoctrination, authoritarian and dogmatic teaching, hypnotism or any other
technique but to improve promotion of tolerance in the exercise of moral
autonomy.
CONSENSUS:
The conductor of a music orchestra has authority over the musicians and his
authority is respected by them by consensus as otherwise the music performance
will suffer. Hence the authority and autonomy are compatible.
On the other hand, tension arises between the needs for autonomy and the need for
concerns about authority. The difference between the two should be discussed
openly to resolve the issue to the common good.
PROFESSIONS AND PROFESSIONALISM
Engineers normally imagine that they are servants to organizations rather than a
public guardian. Responsibility to the public is essential for a professional.
Who is a professional?
• Obviously a member of a profession.
What is a profession?
‘JOB’ or ‘OCCUPATION’ that meets the following criteria from which a person earns
his living.
 Knowledge – Exercise of skills, knowledge, judgment and discretion requiring
extensive formal criteria.
 Organization - special bodies by members of the profession to set standard
codes of ethics,
 Public good-The occupation serves some important public good indicated by
a code of ethics.
Who is a professional engineer?
• Has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from an accredited school

• Performs engineering work
• Is a registered and licensed Professional Engineer
• Acts in a morally responsible way while practicing engineering
Differing views on Professionals
“Only consulting engineers who are basically independent and have freedom from
coercion can be called as professionals.” -Robert L.Whitelaw
“Professionals have to meet the expectations of clients and employers. Professional

restraints are to be imposed by only laws and government regulations and not by
personal conscience.” -Samuel Florman
“Engineers are professionals when they 1) attain standards of achievement in

education, job performance or creativity in engineering and 2) accept the most basic
moral responsibilities to the public as well as employers, clients, colleagues and
subordinates.” -Mike Martin & Roland Schinzinger
MOTIVES FOR PROFESSIONALISM
 A desire for interesting and challenging work and the pleasure in the act of
changing the world.
 The joy of creative efforts. Where a scientist’s interest is in discovering new
technology, engineers interest is derived from creatively solving practical
problems.
 The engineer shares the scientist’s job in understanding the laws and riddles
of the universe.
 The sheer magnitude of the nature – oceans, rivers, mountains and prairies –
leads engineers to build engineering marvels like ships, bridges, tunnels, etc.,
which appeal to human passion.
 The pleasure of being in the presence of machines generating a comforting
and absorbing sense of a manageable, controlled and ordered world.
 Strong sense of helping, of directing efforts towards easing the lot of one’s
fellows.
The main pleasure of the engineer will always be to contribute to the well-being of
his fellow-men.
MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
1. SAVIOR: The representative engineer is a savior who will redeem

society from poverty, inefficiency, waste and the drudgery of manual labour.
2. GUARDIAN: Engineers know, the directions in which and pace at
which, technology should develop.
3. BUREAUCRATIC SERVANT: The engineer as the loyal organization
person uses special skills to solve problems.
4. SOCIAL SERVANT: Engineers, in co-operation with management,
have the task of receiving society’s directives and satisfying society’s desires.
5. SOCIAL ENABLER AND CATALYST: Engineers play a vital role
beyond mere compliance with orders. They help management and society
understand their own needs and to make informed decisions.
6. GAME PLAYER: Engineers are neither servants nor masters of
anyone. They play by the economic game rules that happen to be in effect at a
given time.
TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORIES
S.NO TYPES BASED ON
1 Virtue ethics Virtues and vices
2 Utilitarianism Most good for most people
3 Duty ethics Duties to respect persons
4 Rights ethics Human Rights
VIRTUE ETHICS
• “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

(Socrates, 470-399 B.C.)
• “The happy life is thought to be virtuous; now a virtuous life requires exertion
and does not consist in amusement.” (Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.)
The Four Main Virtues
• Prudence (mind): to think about a moral problem clearly and completely

• Temperance (emotions): control attraction to positive emotions
• Fortitude (emotions): control aversion for negative emotions
• Justice (will): choose according to truth and fairness.
Virtue Ethics
• Focuses on the type of person we should strive to be
• Actions which reflect good character traits (virtues) are inherently right
• Actions which reflect bad character traits (vices) are inherently wrong
• Virtue ethics are tied more to individual behavior than to that of an
organization (e.g. business, government)
ARISTOTLE says that moral virtues are tendencies, acquired through habit
formation, to reach a proper balance between extremes in conduct, emotion, desire
and attitude i.e. virtues are tendencies to find the Golden Mean between the
extremes of too much and too little.
Some of the virtues are defined using examples here:
Virtue Too much Too less

(Golden mean between extremes)
Courage Foolhardiness Cowardice
Truthfulness Revealing all in violation of Being secretive or

tact and confidentiality lacking in candor
Generosity Wasting one’s resources Being miserly
Friendliness Being annoyingly effusive Sulky or surly
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
 Being morally responsible as a professional.

 Most basic and comprehensive professional virtue.
 Creation of useful and safe technological products while respecting the
autonomy of clients and public, especially in matters of risk taking.
This encompasses a wide variety of the more specific virtues grouped as follows:
1. SELF DIRECTION VIRTUES:

Fundamental virtues in exercising our moral autonomy and responsibility. e.g.
self understanding, humility, good moral judgment, courage, self discipline,
perseverance, commitments, self-respect and dignity
2. PUBLIC SPIRITED VIRTUES:
Focusing on the good of the clients and public affected by the engineers’ work by
. not directly and intentionally harming others i.e. ‘nonmaleficence’.
Benificence, sense of community, generosity are other virtues falling in this
category.
3. TEAMWORK VIRTUES:
Enables professionals to work successfully with others. E.g. collegiality,
cooperativeness, the ability to communicate, respect for authority, loyalty to
employers and leadership qualities.
4. PROFICIENCY VIRTUES:
Mastery of one’s craft that characterize good engineering practice e.g.
competence, diligence, creativity, self-renewal through continuous education.
MORAL INTEGRITY
Moral integrity is the unity of character on the basis of moral concern, and especially
on the basis of honesty. The unity is consistency among our attitudes, emotions and
conduct in relation to justified moral values.
SELF-RESPECT
 Valuing oneself in morally appropriate ways.

 Integral to finding meaning in one’s life and work
 A pre-requisite for pursuing other moral ideals and virtues.
 Self-respect is a moral concept of properly valuing oneself but self-esteem is
a psychological concept of positive attitude towards oneself.
Self-respect takes two forms.
1. Recognition self-respect is properly valuing oneself because of one’s inherent

moral worth, the same worth that every other human being has.
2. Appraisal self-respect is properly valuing ourselves according to how well we

meet moral standards and our personal ideals.
VARIOUS SENSES OF RESPONSIBILITY
Responsibility ascribed by i) virtue, ii) obligations, iii) general moral capacities of

people, iv) liabilities and accountability for actions and v) blameworthiness or
praiseworthiness.
1. By virtue: A person is said to be a responsible person when we ascribe a

moral virtue to the person. We expect that the person is regularly concerned to
do the right thing, is conscientious and diligent in meeting obligations. In this
sense, professional responsibility is the central virtue of engineers.
2. By obligation: Moral responsibilities can be thought of as obligations or duties

to perform morally right acts.
3. By general moral capacity: When we view a person as a whole rather than

one with respect to a specific area, we are actually thinking about the active
capacity of the person for knowing how to act in morally appropriate ways e.g.
the capacity of children grow as they mature and learn.
4. By accountability: Responsibility also means being accountable, answerable

or liable to meet particular obligations. The virtue of professional responsibility
implies a willingness to be accountable for one’s conduct.
5. By being blameworthy: When accountability for a wrongdoing is at issue,

responsible becomes a synonym for blameworthy. When right conduct is the
issue, the context is praiseworthiness.
CAUSAL AND LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Causal Responsibility: consists simply in being a cause of some event. E.g. lightning
as being responsible for a house catching fire.
Legal Responsibility: consists simply in being a cause for harm that was so unlikely
and also unforeseeable that no moral responsibility is involved.
UTILITARIANISM
• That which produces the maximum benefit for the greatest number of people
(e.g. Democracy)
• Tries to achieve a balance between the good and bad consequences of an
action
• Tries to maximize the well-being of society and emphasizes what will provide
the most benefits to the largest group of people
• This method is fundamental to many types of engineering analysis, including
risk-benefit analysis and cost-benefit analysis
Drawbacks:
 Sometimes what is best for the community as a whole is bad for certain
individuals in the community
 It is often impossible to know in advance which decision will lead to the
most good
Organizing Principles to Resolving Ethical Issues
• Utilitarian thinking
– a standard that promotes those individual actions or rules that produce the
greatest total amount of utility to those affected.
– A code that enjoins engineers to promote the safety, health, and welfare of
the public.
– What is utility, though? Happiness?
 Preference utilitarianism
– promote those conditions that allow each individual to pursue happiness as he

or she conceives it.
– Two conditions necessary for this: freedom and well-being.
– Practically, for engineers, this advocates cost/benefit analyses.
Problems with Utilitarianism

• Difficult to quantify benefits for ALL those affected.
• “Greatest good” difficult to apply to an all-inclusive population.
• Someone gets “shafted” – approach justifies perpetrating injustice on
individuals, i.e., someone gets left out.
• Three approaches:
1. Cost/benefit – quantifiable approach. Maximize positive utilities (benefits)

against negative utilities (costs).
2. Act utilitarian – “Will the course of action produce more good than any
alternative course of action that I could take”?
3. Rule utilitarian – “Would utility be maximized if everyone did the same
thing in the same circumstances”? Adoption of commonly accepted rules.
1. COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS:
 Assess the available options
 Assess the costs and benefits of each option for the entire audience affected
 Make the decision that is likely to result in the greatest benefit relative to cost.
2. ACT-UTILITARIANISM:
(professed by John Stuart Mills)
 Focuses on individual actions, rather than general rules.
 An act is right if it is likely to produce the most good for the most people
involved in the particular situation.
 Rules may be broken whenever doing so will produce the most good in a
specific situation.
 Happiness is the only ‘intrinsic’ good and all others are ‘instrumental’ goods
that serve as the means of happiness.
3. RULE-UTILITARIANISM:
(professed by Richard Brandt)
 This regards moral values as primary.
 We should follow the rules and avoid bribes, even when those acts do not
have the best consequences in a particular situation, because the general
practice of following rules and not bribing produce the most overall good
 Rules should be considered in sets called ‘moral codes’. A moral code is
justified when followed, would maximize the public good more than alternative
codes would.
DUTY ETHICS (Immanuel Kant’s view)
Contends that certain acts (or duties) should be performed because they are
inherently ethical such as:
 be honest,
 keep promises,
 do not inflict sufferings on other people,
 be fair,
 make reparation when you have been unfair,
 how gratitude for kindness extended by others
 seek to improve own intelligence and character,
 develop one’s talents,
 don’t commit suicide.
 Duties, rather than good consequences, is fundamental.
 Individuals who recognize their ethical duties will choose ethically correct
moral actions
These duties should meet Kant’s 3 conditions i.e.
1. It should express respect for persons,

 People deserve respect because they have capacity to be autonomous
and for exercising goodwill.
 Goodwill is the conscientious and honest effort to do what is right
according to universal principles of duties.
 Moral motives and intentions play a prominent role in duty ethics rather
than utilitarianism.
2. It is an universal principle
 Duties are binding on us only if they are applicable to everyone. They
must be universalisable.
3.It expresses command for autonomous moral agents. Duties prescribe certain
actions categorically, without qualifications or conditions attached. Valid
principles of duties are Categorical Imperatives. They contrast with non-moral
commands called Hypothetical Imperatives which are conditional.
The above ▬► ‘RESPECT for PERSONS’
Drawback of Kant’s duty ethics: It has failed to be sensitive to how principles of duty
can conflict with each other thereby creating Moral dilemmas.
Rawls Development on Kant’s Duty Ethics
Rawls argues that all rational people would agree to abide by two basic moral
principles:
1. Each person is entitled to the most extensive amount of liberty compatible with an
equal amount for others and
2. Differences in social power and economic benefits are justified only when they are
likely to benefit everyone, including members of most disadvantaged groups.
RIGHTS ETHICS (JOHN LOCKE – 1632-1704)
• Everyone has inherent moral rights

• Everyone has rights that arise from EXISTING (i.e. right to Life, maximum
individual Liberty, and human Dignity are Fundamental Rights).
• Other rights arise as a Consequence.
• Duties arise because people have rights, not vice versa.
• Any act that violates an individual’s moral rights is ethically unacceptable.
• Rights ethics was highly individualistic.
• Rights are primarily entitlements that prevent other people from meddling in
one’s life. These are referred to as Liberty Rights or Negative Rights that place
duties on other people not to interfere with one’s life.
e.g. Individuals do not have rights to life because others have duties not to kill
them. Instead, possessing the right to life is the reason why others ought not to
kill them.
Drawbacks
• How do we prioritize the rights of different individuals?

• Rights ethics often promote the rights of individuals at the expense of large
groups/society
A.I.Melden’s version of Rights Ethics
 Human rights are intimately related to communities of people.

 This version is known as POSITIVE WELFARE RIGHTS and is defined as
rights to community benefits for living a minimally decent human life.
EVALUATION OF ETHICAL THEORIES
We are basically not interested in which of the ethical theories is the best. It is
believed that there are areas in which each theory complements others by how they
differ.
Procedure for General Evaluation:
1. The theory must be clear and formulated with concepts that are coherent and
applicable.
2. It must be internally consistent in that none of its tenets contradicts any other.
3. Neither the theory nor its defense can rely upon false information.
4. It must be sufficiently comprehensive to provide guidance in specific situations
of interest to us.
5. It must be compatible with our most carefully considered moral convictions
about concrete situations.
SELF-INTEREST AND ETHICAL EGOISM
Psychological Egoism
All of our actions can be reduced to self-interest

• We always do what we most want to do. e.g., a man who helps others has
chosen to do so, so he sees doing it, is in his self-interest
• We do what makes us feel good. e.g., a man who helps others must get
pleasure from doing it – hence it is in his self-interest
The Problem of Counter Examples
What about charity and pity?

These require the egoist to distinguish selfish and unselfish acts from selfish and
unselfish motives
• Charity – I enjoy showing my power
• Pity – I worry that it might happen to me
So again, doing these, we act from self-interest
Confusion over self-interest and selfishness
• Not all actions are done from selfishness

• Brushing my teeth (self-interested but not selfish)
Also confusion over self-interest and pleasure
• Not all actions are done from self-interest

• Smoking cigarettes (pleasurable but not self-interested)
• Self-interest = any interest the self has
What do all major Ethical Theories say about this?
All major theories acknowledge the importance of Self Interest.

 Utilitarians take into account one’s own good as well as others.
 Duty ethics emphasizes duties to ourselves.
 Right ethicists talk about our rights to pursue our own good.
 Virtue ethicists emphasize the importance of self-respect.
But all these theories also emphasize that the pursuit of self interest must be
balanced with our moral responsibilities to others.
Ethical Egoism
 A different view, which talks of morality as only the pursuit of self interest
 Self interest is a ‘rational concern’ requiring consideration of one’s long-term
interests.
E.g., taking bribe may appear to serve one’s self interest but it does not serve the
long-term interest of self. Hence taking bribe is not acceptable since it would not
do any good on a long-term. This was professed by Thomas Hobbes (1588-
1679) and Ayn Rand (1905-1982).
 Ayn Rand – with only one life to live, the individual is of utmost importance
 It is in one’s self-interest to adopt the Moral Point of View (Hobbes’ Social
Contract)
CUSTOMS and ETHICAL RELATIVISM
Relativism:
 Distinction between “morals” (“treatment of others”) and “mores” (“harmless

customs”)
Cultural (Descriptive) Relativism:
 Factual Claims: “x is considered right in society y at time t” and “is considered

wrong in society z at time t”
 Empirical Conclusion: Moralities are relative
 This is either true or false (anthropology –a study of mankind , its customs,
beliefs, etc.can figure it out)
Normative (Ethical) Relativism:
 Normative Claim: “What is considered right in society x at time t is right for

that society”
 A particular culture cannot be judged from outside of that culture.
 ‘Ethical Relativism’ says that actions are morally right when they are approved
by law and custom.
 They are wrong when they violate laws and custom.
 Ethical egoism tries to reduce moral reasons to matters of self interest,
‘ethical relativism’ attempts to reduce moral values to laws, conventions and
customs of particular societies.
Consequences of Normative Relativism
 We cannot say other “morals” are inferior to our own society’s

 We decide the value of our actions based only on what our particular society
thinks
 We should show a lot of tolerance for different customs and outlooks in a
society in which we live in. It means that customs can have moral significance in
deciding how we should act. This view is called ‘ethical pluralism’.
Reasons for Acceptance Of Ethical Relativism
The reasons professed for acceptance of ethical relativism is threefold.

1. Laws seem so tangible and clear-cut. They provide a public way ending
seemingly endless disputes about rights and wrongs. But many times, moral
reasons seem to be at variance with laws e.g. apartheid laws.
2. Moral standards vary dramatically from one culture to another. The only kind of
objectivity possible is limited to a given set of laws in a given society.
Acknowledging this relativity of morality encourages the virtue of tolerance of
differences among societies.
3. Moral judgments should be made in relation to factors that from case to case,
usually making it impossible to formulate rules which are simple. Customs and
laws are usually morally relevant factors that should be taken into account.
RELIGION and DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS
Ethics and Religion:
Moral issues and religious belief are related in several positive ways.
 First, they are shaped over time from the central moral values of major world
religions.
 Second, religious views often support moral responsibility by providing
additional motivation for being moral.
 Third, sometimes religions set a higher moral standard than is conventional.
 Societies often benefit from a variety of religions that make prominent
particular virtues, inspiring their members to pursue them beyond what is
ordinarily seen as morally obligatory.
Divine Command Ethic:
 This says that an act which is right is commanded by god and the one which
is wrong is forbidden by God.
 The difficulty in this is to know precisely what God’s commands are and in
knowing whether God exists.
We can view that moral reasons are not reducible to religious matters, although
religious belief may provide an added inspiration for responding to them.
Uses Of Ethical Theories
1. Ethical theories aid in identifying the moral considerations or reasons that

constitute a dilemma.
2. They provide a precise sense of what kinds of information are relevant to
solving moral development.
3. They sometimes, offer ways to rank the relevant moral considerations in order
of importance and provide a rough guidance in solving moral problems.
4. The theories help us identify the full moral ramifications of alternative courses
of action, urging a wide perspective on the moral implications of the options
and providing a systematic framework of comparing alternatives.
5. The theories augment the precision with which we use moral terms and they
provide frame works for moral reasoning when discussing moral issues with
colleagues.
6. By providing frame works for development of moral arguments, the theories
strengthen our ability to reach balanced and insightful judgments.
UNIT III - ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION
To undertake a great work and especially a work of novel type means, carrying
out an experiment. It means taking up a struggle with the forces of nature
without the assurance of emerging as a victor after the first attack.
Louis Marie Henri Navier (1785 - 1836) - Founder of Structural Analysis
ENGINEERING AS EXPERIMENTATION
 Experimentation (Preliminary tests or Simulations) plays a vital role in the

design of a product or process.
 In all stages of converting a new engineering concept into a design like,
 first rough cut design,
 usage of different types of materials and processes,
 detailed design,
 further stages of work design and
 the finished product,
Experiments and tests are conducted to evaluate the product. Modifications are
made based on the outcome of these experiments.
 The normal design process is thus iterative (modifications being made on the
basis of feedback information acquired from the tests).
Even though various tests and experiments are conducted at various stages, the
engineering project as a whole in its totality can be viewed as an experiment.
SIMILARITIES TO STANDARD EXPERIMENTS

1. Any project is carried out in partial ignorance due to
 The uncertainties in the abstract model used for the design calculations,
 The uncertainties in the precise characteristics of the materials purchased,
 The uncertainties caused by variations in processing and fabrication of
materials and
 The uncertainties about the nature of stresses the finished product will
encounter.
Indeed, Engineer’s success lies in the ability to accomplish tasks with only a partial
knowledge of scientific laws about nature and society.
2. The final outcome of engineering projects, like those of experiments, is generally

uncertain. Very often, possible outcomes are not even known and great risks may
be presented which could never be thought of.
3. Effective Engineering relies upon knowledge gained about products both before
and after they leave the factory- knowledge needed for improving current
products and creating better ones. That is, ongoing success in engineering
depends upon gaining new knowledge.
LEARNING FROM THE PAST

Engineers should learn not only from their own earlier design and operating results,
but also from other engineers.
Engineers repeat the past mistakes of others due to the following reasons.
 Lack of established channels of communication.

 Misplaced pride in not asking for information
 Embarrassment at failure or fear of litigation (legal problems).
 Negligence.
Examples:
1. The Titanic lacked sufficient number of life boats resulting in the death of 1522
out of 2227 (life boat capacity available was only 825), a few decades later Arctic
perished due to the same problem.
2. In June 1966, a section of the Milford Haven Bridge in Wales collapsed during
construction. A bridge of similar design, erected by the same bridge- builder in
Melbourne, Australia, also partially collapsed in the month of October, same year.
During this incident 33 people were killed and many were injured.
3. Malfunctions occurred at nuclear reactors at various locations and the

information reports were with Babcock and Wilcox, the reactor manufacturer. In spite
of these, no attention was paid leading to a pressure relief valve giving rise to the
Three Mile Island nuclear accident on March 28, 1979.
CONTRASTS WITH STANDARD EXPERIMENTS

1. EXPERIMENTAL CONTROL: In standard experiments, members are in two
different groups. Members of one group receive special experimental treatment. The
other group members, called ‘control group’ do not receive special treatment, though
they are from the same environment in all other respects.
But this is not true in engineering, since most of the experiments are not conducted
in laboratories. The subjects of experiments are human beings who are outside the
experimenter’s control.
Thus it is not possible to study the effects of changes in variable on different groups.
Hence only historical and retrospective data available about various target groups
has to be used for evaluation. Hence engineering as a social experimentation seems
to be an extended usage of the concept of experimentation.
2. INFORMED CONSENT: has two elements, knowledge and voluntariness. The

subjects (human beings) should be given all the information needed to make a
reasonable decision. Next, they must get into the experiment without being subjected
to force, fraud or deception. Supplying complete information is neither necessary nor
in most cases possible. But all relevant information needed for making a reasonable
decision on whether to participate should be conveyed. Generally, we all prefer to be
the subject of our own experiments rather than those of somebody else.
Conditions defining Informed or Valid Consent
a. The consent is given voluntarily

b. The consent is based on information a rational person would want,
together with any other information requested and presented to them in
understandable form.
c. The consenter was competent to process the information and make
rational decisions.
d. Information has been widely disseminated.
e. The subject’s consent is offered by proxy by a group that collectively
represents many subjects like interests, concerns and exposure to risk.
‘Engineering experiments are not conducted to gain new knowledge unlike scientific
experiments’. Is this distinction necessary?
This distinction is not vital because we are concerned about the manner in which the
experiment is conducted, such as valid consent of human subjects being sought,
safety measures taken and means exist for terminating the experiment at any time
and providing all participants a safe exit.
Features of morally responsible engineers in social experimentation
Conscientiousness: A primary obligation to protect the safety of human subjects and

respect their right of consent.
Relevant information: A constant awareness of the experimental nature of any
project, imaginative forecasting of its possible side effects and a reasonable effort to
monitor them.
Moral autonomy: Autonomous, personal involvement in all steps of the project.
Accountability: Accepting accountability for the results of the project.
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS:
 Conscientious moral commitment means sensitivity to the full range of
relevant moral values.
 Sensitivity to responsibilities that is relevant.
 Willingness to develop the skill and expend the effort needed to reach the
best balance possible among these considerations.
 Conscientiousness means consciousness because mere intent is not
sufficient.
Conceiving engineering as social experimentation restores the vision of engineers as

guardians of the public interest in that they are duty bound to guard the welfare and
safety of those affected by engg projects.
RELEVANT INFORMATION:
Conscientiousness is blind without relevant factual information. Moral concern

involves a commitment to obtain and assess all available pertinent information.
Another dimension to factual information is the consequences of what one does.
While regarding engg as social experimentation points out the importance of context,
it also urges the engineer to view his or her specialized activities in a project as part
of a larger whole having a social impact that may involve a variety of unintended
effects. It may be better to practice ‘defensive engg’ (Chauncy Starr) or ‘preventive
engg’ (Ruth Davis).
MORAL AUTONOMY
 People are morally autonomous when their moral conduct and principles of
action are their own.
 Moral beliefs and attitudes must be a critical reflection and not a passive
adoption of the particular conventions of one’s society, religion or profession.
 Moral beliefs and attitudes cannot be agreed to formally and adhered to
merely verbally.
 They must be integrated into the core of one’s personality and should lead to
committed action.
 It is wrong to think that as an employee when one performs ‘acts’ serving
company’s interests, one is no longer morally and personally identified with
one’s actions.
 Viewing engg as a social experimentation helps to overcome this flawed
thought and restores a sense of autonomous participation in one’s work.
 As an experimenter, an engineer is exercising the specialized training
that forms the core of one’s identity as a professional.
 A social experiment that can result in unknown consequences should
help inspire a critical and questioning attitude about the adequacy of
current economic and safety standards.
 In turn, this leads to better personal involvement with work.
ACCOUNTABILITY:
 Responsible people accept moral responsibility for their actions.

 Accountability is the willingness to submit one’s actions to moral scrutiny and
be open and responsive to the assessment of others.
 It should be understood as being culpable and blameworthy for misdeeds.
Submission to an employer’s authority creates in many people a narrow sense of

accountability for the consequences of their action. This is because of
i) Only a small contribution is made by one individual, when large scale

engineering work is fragmented. The final product which is far away from one’s
immediate workplace, does not give a proper understanding of the consequences
of one’s action.
ii) Due to the fragmentation of work, a vast diffusion of accountability takes
place. The area of personal accountability is delimited to the portion of work
being carried out by one.
iii) The pressure to move on to another new project does not allow one to
complete the observations long enough. This makes people accountable only for
meeting schedules and not for the consequences of action.
iv) To avoid getting into legal issues, engineers tend to concentrate more on
legal liabilities than the containment of the potential risks involved in their area of
work.
Viewing engineering as a social experimentation makes one overcome these

difficulties and see the problem in whole rather than as part.
ENGINEERING CODES OF ETHICS
Engineering Codes of Ethics have evolved over time
EARLY CODES
•Codes of personal behavior

•Codes for honesty in business dealings and fair business practices
•Employee/employer relations
NEWER CODES
• Emphasize commitments to safety, public health and environmental protection

• Express the rights, duties and obligations of members of the Profession
• Do not express new ethical principles, but coherently restate existing standards
of responsible engineering practice
• Create an environment within the Profession where ethical behavior is the norm
• Not legally binding; an engineer cannot be arrested for violating an ethical code
(but may be expelled from or censured by the engineering society)
Are Engineering Codes Needed? NO:

–Engineers are capable of fending for themselves

–Common law is available to defend in ethical disputes
–Offended public can seek redress through courts
Are Engineering Codes Needed? YES:
–Engineers have few or no resources to defend themselves in an ethical dispute

–Common law is available in reality only with great difficulty
–Conversely, the public has similar problems in seeking redress through legal
channels
Objections to Existing Engineering Codes of Ethics:
–Relatively few engineers are members of engineering societies.

–Non-members don’t necessarily follow the ethical codes.
–Many engineers either don’t know that the codes exist, or have not read them.
Which ethical codes apply?
–Depending upon your discipline and organizational affiliations, you may be bound
by one, two or even more ethical codes:
•Discipline related (ASME, IEEE, ASCE, IIE etc.)
•National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
•Employee codes (corporation, university, etc.)
•Union Codes
Engineering Ethics
Our engineering ethics codes are derived from a Western cultural tradition
–Ancient Greeks
–Judeo-Christian religions
–Philosophers and thinkers (e.g. Locke, Kant, Mills)
The Hammurabi Code
If a builder has built a house for a man and has not made his work sound, and the
house he has built has fallen down and so caused the death of the householder, that
builder shall be put to death. If it causes the death of the householder’s son, they
shall put the builder’s son to death….
(Hammurabi, King of Babylon, 1758 B.C.)
Code of Ethics for Engineers
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology

(ABET)
The Fundamental Principles
Engineers shall uphold and advance the integrity, honor, and dignity of the
engineering profession by:
• using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of the human race;
• being honest and impartial and serving with fidelity the public, their employers, and
clients;
• striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering profession.
• supporting the professional and technical societies of their discipline.
The Fundamental Cannons
Engineers shall
• hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public in the performance of
their professional duties;
• perform service only in areas of their competence;
• issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner;
• act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees,
and shall avoid conflicts of interest;
• build their professional reputations on the merits of their services and shall not
compete unfairly with others
• act in such manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity and dignity of the
profession;
• continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall provide
opportunities for the professional development of those engineers under their
supervision.
CODES OF ETHICS - ROLES OR FUNCTIONS
1. Inspiration and Guidance:

 Codes provide positive stimulus for ethical conduct and helpful guidance by
using positive language.
 Codes should be brief to be effective and hence such codes offer only general
guidance.
 Supplementary statements or guidelines to give specific directions are added
by a number of societies or professional bodies.
2. Support:
 Codes give positive support to those seeking to act ethically.
 An engineer under pressure to act unethically can use one of the publicly
proclaimed codes to get support for his stand on specific moral issues.
 Codes also serve as legal support for engineers.
3. Deterrence and discipline:

 Codes can be used as a basis for conducting investigations on unethical
conduct.
 They also provide a deterrent for engineers to act immorally.
 Engineers who are punished by professional societies for proven unethical
behaviour by revoking the rights to practice as engineers are also subjected to
public ridicule and loss of respect from colleagues and local community.
 This helps to produce ethical conduct even though this can be viewed as a
negative way of motivation.
4. Education and mutual understanding:

The codes can be used for discussion and reflection on moral issues and thereby
improve the understanding of moral responsibilities among all engineers, clients,
public and good organizations.
5. Contributing to the profession’s public image:

Codes present the engineering profession as an ethically committed society in the
eyes of the public thus enhancing their image.
6. Protecting status quo:

Codes establish ethical conventions, which can help promote an agreed upon
minimum level of ethical conduct.
7. Promoting business interests:

Codes can place unwarranted restraints of commerce on business dealings.
Relative importance of the various functions of codes of ethics
 The perspective of engg as social experimentation clearly emphasizes the

primary role ‘supportive function’ of the codes of ethics. This is so because,
only this support enables engineers, speak out clearly and openly their views,
to those affected by engg projects.
 The, ‘inspiration and guidance’ and ‘educative’ functions are also important in
promoting mutual understanding and in motivating engineers to act with
higher moral standards.
 The ‘disciplinary’ function in engg codes is of secondary importance. Those
with unethical conduct when exposed are subject to law. Developing
elaborate paralegal procedures within professional societies duplicates a
function which can be done better by legal system. At best, codes should try
to discipline engineers in areas which are not covered by law.
 The worst abuse of codes has been to restrict honest moral effort in the name
of ‘preserving profession’s public mage’ and ‘protecting status quo’. The best
way to increase trust is by encouraging and aiding engineers to speak freely
and responsibly about public safety.
Limitations of Codes of Ethics
1. Codes are restricted to general and vague wording. They cannot be straightaway
applied to all situations. It is impossible to foresee the full range of moral problems
that can arise in a complex profession like engg.
2. It is easy for different clauses of codes to come into conflict with each other.
Usually codes provide no guidance as to which clause should have priority in those
cases, creating moral dilemmas.
3. They cannot serve as the final moral authority for professional conduct. If the code
of a professional society is taken as the last word, it means that we are getting into a
particular set of conventions i.e. ethical conventionalism.
4. Andrew Oldenquist and Edward Slowter pointed out how the existence of separate
codes for different professional societies can give members the feeling that ethical
conduct is more relative than it is and that it can convey to the public the view that
none is ‘really right’. The current codes are by no means perfect but are definitely
steps in the right direction.
The problems of law in engineering
1. The greatest problem of law in engg is of ‘minimal compliance’. Engineers and

employers can search for loop holes in the law to barely keep to its letter while
violating its spirit. Engineers will tend to refer to standard readymade specifications
rather than come up with innovative ideas. Minimal compliance led to the tragedy of
the ‘Titanic’.
2. Continually updating laws and regulations may be counter-productive and will

make law always lag behind technology. This also overburdens the rules and
regulators.
3. Many laws are ‘non-laws’ i.e. laws without enforceable sanctions. These merely
serve as window dressing, frequently gives a false sense of security to the public.
4. The opponents of the law may burden it intentionally with many unreasonable
provisions that a repeal will not be far off.
5. Highly powerful organizations, like the government can violate the laws when they
think they can get away with it by inviting would be challengers, to face them in
lengthy and costly court proceedings. This also creates frustration with the law.
Role of law in engineering
 It is wrong to write off rule-making and rule following as futile. Good laws,
effectively enforced, clearly produce benefits.
 Reasonable minimum standards are ensured of professional conduct.
 It also provides a self-interested motive for most people and corporations to
comply.
 They also serve as powerful support and defense for those who wish to act
ethically in situations where ethical conduct might not be welcome.
 Viewing engineering as social experimentation provides engineers with a
better perspective on laws and regulations.
 Precise rules and enforceable sanctions are appropriate in cases of ethical
misconduct that involve violations of well established and regularly
reexamined procedures that have as their purpose the safety of public.
 In areas of experimentation, rules must not attempt to cover all possible
outcomes of an experiment, nor must they force the engineer to adopt a
rigidly specified course of action. Here the regulations should be broad based
guidelines but should hold the engineer accountable for his or her decisions.
UNIT IV – SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS
SAFETY AND RISK
Imagine you are a fresh graduate.
You get a job as an engineer in a large atomic power plant.
 Would you take it or not?

 Under what conditions would you take it?
 Under what conditions would you not?
 Why?
People as Consumers:
 Active Consumers: directly involve themselves e.g., mowing the lawn,

washing clothes or toasting bread.
 Passive Consumers: have less choice and less control e.g., Water, Electricity,
Petrol,
 Bystanders: e.g., exposed to Pollution from unknown sources
.What is safe to Entrepreneurs, may not be so to Engineers. e.g., Pilots: "Indian

Airports are not safe; Low Vision in Fog“
What is safe to Engineers, may not be so to Public. e.g., Top loading Washing
Machine
Typically several groups of people are involved in safety matters but have their own
interests at stake. Each group may differ in what is safe and what is not.
Concept of Safety
1. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for” – John A.
Shedd
2. ‘A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable’ - William W. Lawrence
 We buy an ill-designed Iron box in a sale-> Underestimating risk
 We judge fluoride in water can kill lots of people -> Overestimating risk
 We hire a taxi, without thinking about its safety -> Not estimating risk
 How does a judge pass a judgement on safety in these 3 cases?
….So, this definition won't do in real life.
Then, what is acceptable also depends upon the individual or group’s value
judgment. Hence a better, working definition of concept of safety could be,
“A thing is safe (to a certain degree) with respect to a given person or group at a
given time if, were they fully aware of its risks and expressing their most settled
values, they would judge those risks to be acceptable (to that certain degree).” -
Mike Martin and Roland Schinzinger
A thing is NOT SAFE if it exposes us to unacceptable danger or hazard
RISK is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur.
a. We take a risk when we undertake something or use a product that is
not safe.
Risk in technology could include dangers of
b. bodily harm,
c. economic loss, or
d. environmental degradation.
 Some may assume that “safety” is a concrete concept, while “risk” is a vague,
hypothetical concept
 In fact, its the other way around
 Risks always exist. But true safety never exists, except in hypothetical
situations
 So, risk is reality, safety is fantasy
What degree of risk is acceptable?
Safety is a matter of how people would find risks acceptable or unacceptable, if

they knew the risks, and are basing their judgments on their most settled value
perspective.
So, to this extent, it is objective.
Perspectives differ.
To this extent, it is subjective.
So, Safety is 'acceptable risk'.
Acceptable Risk
‘A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer (or not)
apprehensive about it.’
Apprehension (i.e. anxiety) depends largely on factors such as

 whether the risk is assumed voluntarily.
 how the probabilities of harm (or benefit) is perceived.
 job-related or other pressures that causes people to be aware of or to
overlook risks.
 whether the defects of a risky activity or situation are immediately noticeable
or close at hand .
 whether the potential victims are identifiable beforehand.
Voluntary risk and Control
A person is said to take ‘VOLUNTARY RISK’

-when he is subjected to risk by either his own actions or action taken by others and
-volunteers to take that risk without any apprehension.
-For example, John and Ann Smith enjoy riding motorcycles over rough ground for
amusement. They take voluntary risk, part of being engaged in such a potentially
dangerous sport.
Connected to this notion of voluntarism is the matter of Control. In the example cited,
the Smiths are aware of the high probability of accident figures in such a sport, but
they display characteristically unrealistic confidence of most people when they
believe the dangers to be under their control. In terms of engineering as social
experimentation, people are more willing to be the subjects of their own experiments
than of someone else’s (whether social experiment or not).
Chauncey Starr informs us that individuals are more ready to assume voluntary risks
than involuntary risks, even when voluntary risks are 1000 times more likely to
produce a fatality than the involuntary ones.
 A DISASTER = A seriously disruptive event + A state of unprepared ness.

 e.g., Titanic collision with an iceberg, at night: Emergency
 Fewer lifeboats, inadequate training and warnings of icebergs
unheeded -> Disaster.
Effect of information on risk assessments
The manner in which information necessary for decision making is presented can
greatly influence how risks are perceived. Consider this example:
In a particular case of disaster management, the only options available are provided
in 2 different ways to the public for one to be chosen (where lives of 600 people are
at stake).
Alternate 1
If program A is followed, 200 people will be saved. If Program B is followed, 1/3
probability is 600 people will be saved and 2/3 probability that nobody will be saved.
Response
72% of the target group chose option A and 28% option B
Alternate 2
If program A is followed, 400 people will die. If Program B is followed, 1/3 probability
is that nobody will die and 2/3 probability that 600 people will die.
Response
This time only 22% of the target group chose option A and 78% option B
Conclusion:
1. The option perceived as yielding firm gain will tend to be preferred over those
from which gains are perceived as risky or only probable.
2. Option emphasizing firm losses will tend to be avoided in favour of those
whose chances of success are perceived as probable.
Secondary Costs of Products
Cost of products is High, if designed unsafely

 Returns and Warranty Expenses
 Loss of Customer Goodwill
 Cost of litigation
 Loss of Customers due to injuries in using it
 Cost of rework, lost time in attending to design problems
Manufacturer’s understanding of the risk in a product is necessary:

 To help reduce secondary costs
 To know the possible risk for purposes of pricing, disclaimers, legal terms and
conditions, etc.
 To know the cost of reducing the risks
 To take a decision before finalizing the design.
Buyer’s understanding of the risk in a product is necessary:

 To judge whether he/she wants to take the risks
 To judge whether the ‘risk vs. costs’ justifies taking the risk.
‘JOB RELATED RISKS’
 Many workers are taking risks in their jobs in their stride like being exposed to
asbestos.
 Exposure to risks on a job is in one sense of voluntary nature since one can
always refuse to submit to the work or may have control over how the job is
done.
 But generally workers have no choice other than what they are told to do
since they want to stick to the only job available to them.
 But they are not generally informed about the exposure to toxic substances
and other dangers which are not readily seen, smelt, heard or otherwise
sensed.
 Occupational health and safety regulations and unions can have a better say
in correcting these situations but still things are far below expected safety
standards.
 Engineers while designing work stations must take into account the casual
attitude of workers on safety (esp. when they are paid on piece rate).
Problems faced by engineers about public concept of safety

The optimistic attitude that things that are familiar, that have not caused harm before
and over which we have some control present no risks.
The serious shock people feel when an accident kills or maims people in large
numbers or harms those we know, even though statistically speaking such accidents
might occur infrequently.
‘Safety in a commodity comes with a price’ – Explain.
Absolute safety is never possible to attain and safety can be improved in an

engineering product only with an increase in cost.
On the other hand, unsafe products incur secondary costs to the producer beyond
the primary (production) costs, like warranty costs loss of goodwill, loss of
customers, litigation costs, downtime costs in manufacturing, etc.
Figure indicates that P- Primary costs are high for a highly safe (low risk) product
and S- Secondary costs are high for a highly risky (low safe) product.
If we draw a curve T=P+S as shown, there is a point at which costs are minimum
below which the cost cannot be reduced.
If the risk at Minimum Total Cost Point is not acceptable, then the producer has to
choose a lower acceptable risk value in which case the total cost will be higher than
M and the product designed accordingly.
It should now be clear that ‘safety comes with a price’ only

.
Knowledge of risk for better safety
 Robert Stephenson writes that all the accidents, the harms caused and the
means used to repair the damage should be recorded for the benefit of the
younger Members of Profession.
 A faithful account of those accidents and the damage containment was really
more valuable than the description of successful work.
 Hence it is imperative that knowledge of risks will definitely help to attain
better safety.
 But it should be borne in mind, that still gaps remain, because
i)there are some industries where information is not freely shared and
ii)there are always new applications of old technology that render the
available information less useful.
Uncertainties encountered in design process
 A decision on maximising profit or maximising the return on investment.

 Uncertainties about applications like dynamic loading instead of static
loading, vibrations, wind speeds.
 Uncertainties regarding materials and skills required in the manufacturing.
 Changing economic realities.
 Unfamiliar environmental conditions like very low temperature.
 The available standard data on items like steel, resistors, insulators,
optical glass, etc are based on statistical averages only.
 Due to the inherent nature of processes, all compts have a tolerance in
design leading to the probability statistics by which assemblies’ capability
is assessed.
Testing strategies for safety
Some commonly used testing methods:

 Using the past experience in checking the design and performance.
 Prototype testing. Here the one product tested may not be representative of
the population of products.
 Tests simulated under approximately actual conditions to know the
performance flaws on safety.
 Routine quality assurance tests on production runs.
The above testing procedures are not always carried out properly. Hence we cannot
trust the testing procedures uncritically. Some tests are also destructive and
obviously it is impossible to do destructive testing and improve safety.
In such cases, a simulation that traces hypothetical risky outcomes could be applied.
 Scenario Analysis (Event -> Consequences)
 Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (Failure modes of each component)
 Fault Tree Analysis (System Failure -> Possible Causes at component level)
 What if there is a combination of factors?
 All Analysis pre-suppose a thorough understanding of the physical
system
Failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) :
This approach systematically examines the failure modes of each component,

without however, focusing on relationships among the elements of a complex
system.
Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) :
A system failure is proposed and then events are traced back to possible causes at
the component level. The reverse of the fault-tree analysis is ‘event – tree analysis’.
This method most effectively illustrates the disciplined approach required to capture
as much as possible of everything that affects proper functioning and safety of a
complex system.
Risk Benefit Analysis
Ethical Implications
 When is someone entitled to impose a risk on another in view of a supposed
benefit to others?
 Consider the worst case scenarios of persons exposed to maximum risks
while they are reaping only minimum benefits. Are their rights violated?
 Are they provided safer alternatives?
 Engineers should keep in mind that risks to known persons are perceived
differently from statistical risks
 Engineers may have no control over grievance redressal.
Conceptual difficulties in Risk-Benefit Analysis
Both risks and benefits lie in future

 Heavy discounting of future because the very low present values of
cost/benefits do not give a true picture of future sufferings.
 Both have related uncertainties but difficult to arrive at expected values
 What if benefits accrue to one party and risks to another?
 Can we express risks & benefits in a common set of units?
 e.g. Risks can be expressed in one set of units (deaths on the
highway) and benefits in another (speed of travel)?
Many projects, which are highly beneficial to the public, have to be safe also.
Hence these projects can be justified using RISK-BENEFIT analysis. In these

studies, one should find out
i) What are the risks involved?

ii) What are the benefits that would accrue?
iii) When would benefits be derived and when risks have to be faced?
iv) Who are the ones to be benefited and who are the ones subjected to risk-are they
the same set of people or different.
The issue here is not, say, cost-effective design but it is only cost of risk taking Vs
benefit analysis. Engineers should first recommend the project feasibility based on
risk-benefit analysis and once it is justified, then they may get into cost-effectiveness
without increasing the risk visualized.
In all this, engineers should ask themselves this ethical question: ‘Under what
conditions, is someone in society entitled to impose a risk on someone else on
behalf of a supposed benefit to others.’
Difficulties in assessing Personal Risks
 Individuals are ready to assume voluntary risks than involuntary risks.
 The difficulty here is generally in assessing personal risks which are

involuntary.
 The problem of quantification of risk raises innumerable problems.
 For example, how to assign a rupee value to one’s life. There is no over the
counter trade in lives.
 Even for a sale, it has to be clear under what conditions the sale is to take
place.
 If one buys a kg of rice it matters whether it is just one additional purchase
one makes regularly or it is the first rice purchase after quite sometime.
 Even when compensations are made to people exposed to involuntary risk,

the basis on which it is made or even the intensity of risk could be different for
different people.
 As of now, the one suggestion could be to employ an open procedure,

overseen by trained arbiters, in each case, where risk to individuals is to be
studied and remedied.
Public Risk and Public Acceptance
 Risks and benefits to public are more easily determined than to individuals
 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)- proposed a value
for life based on:
 loss of future income
 other costs associated with the accident
 estimate of quantifiable losses in social welfare resulting from a fatality
 NOT a proper basis for determining the optimal expenditure allocated
to saving lives
Accounting publicly for benefits and risks
Engineers should account publicly for benefits and risks in the following manner:
 Engineers must remain as objective as humanly possible in their

investigations and conclusions.
 They must also state openly any personal biases that they may have about
the project being investigated.
 Engineers, even if they are acknowledged experts, may not have complete
knowledge of the issues at hand.
 They should, if necessary, admit their lack of knowledge, in any particular
area publicly.
 A willingness to admit uncertainty and also to reveal methodology and
sources particularly when numerical data is presented.
 The way statistical information is presented can create misconceptions in the
public mind. Hence it should be presented in a way to improve realistic
interpretations.
 They must consider the views of the parties affected by the project under
study before coming to conclusions.
 The type of action taken should be morally evaluated regardless of its
consequences. If it is wrong to violate certain rights, then figuring out the
benefit of the consequences of doing so is irrelevant.
Difficulties in establishing Safeguards
 Incomplete knowledge of the engineering subject

 Refusal to face hard questions caused by lack of knowledge
 False sense of security
 e.g. Nuclear waste disposal problem
 Caution in stating probabilities of rare events
 Varying understanding of risk based on presentation of facts
 Risk assessments based on incorrect/unacceptable assumptions/data
 Only a few persons/groups participate in the exercise
Some of the ways by which engineers may try to reduce risks.
 In all the areas of works, engineers should give top priority for product safety.
 They should believe that accidents are caused by dangerous conditions that
can be corrected. Negligence and operator errors are not the principal causes
of accidents.
 If a product is made safe, the initial costs need not be high if safety is built
into a product from the beginning. It is the design changes done at a later
date that are costly. Even then life cycle costs can be made lower for the
redesigned or retrofitted product (for safety).
 If safety is not built into the original design, people can be hurt during testing
stage itself.
 They should get out of the thinking that warnings about hazards are adequate
and that insurance coverage is cheaper than planning for safety.
 All it takes to make a product safe is to have different perspective on the
design problem with emphasis on safety.
Examples of Improved Safety

 Magnetic door catch introduced on refrigerators
 Prevent death by asphyxiation of children accidentally trapped inside
 The catch now permits the door to opened from inside easily
 Cheaper than older types of latches
 Dead-man Handle for Drivers in trains
 Semaphore signaling
 Volkswagen's car safety belt
 Attachment on the door so that belt automatically goes in place on
entry
Liability
Early logic and social philosophy: (Richard C. Vaughan)

 ‘Caveat Emptor’: buyer beware
 Examine what you want before you buy
 If he is negligent, he suffers the bad bargain.
 Law will not aid those who are negligent
 ‘Privity of Contract’: User, if he is not a party to the contract, has no rights for
any claim ( user buys from the retailer and not from the manufacturer).
Gradually....
Manufacturer was made liable for injuries resulting from negligence in the
design/manufacture
 The new law: concept of Strict Liability was established in the case ‘Green
man vs. Yuba Power Products’ in California.
 If the product sold is defective, the manufacturer is liable
for any harm that results to users
Implications to Engineers:
 Engineers must weigh chances of defect causing injury against cost of

minimizing defects
 Minimal compliance is insufficient – adhering to accepted practices &

standards not enough
 Standards are mere checklists - use them creatively and judgmentally
 Engineers can be sued personally even when acting according to guidelines

set by employers
 e.g. One county highway engineer was sued for failure to repair roads-- had to
pay $2 million
 Some Cos. protect their engineers and allow themselves to be sued for such
money damages
 Independent engineers can write liability limits into their contracts
 Good knowledge of liability is necessary for engineers
‘SAFE EXIT’
It is almost impossible to build a completely safe product or one that will never fail.
When there is a failure of the product SAFE EXIT should be provided.
Safe exit is to assure that
i) when a product fails, it will fail safely,

ii) that the product can be abandoned safely and iii) that the user can safely escape
the product.
More than the questions of who will build, install, maintain and pay for a safe exit, the
most important question is who will recognize the need for a safe exit. This
responsibility should be an integral part of the experimental procedure.
Some examples of providing ‘SAFE EXIT’:

 Ships need lifeboats with sufficient spaces for all passengers and crew
members.
 Buildings need usable fire escapes
 Operation of nuclear power plants calls for realistic means of evacuating
nearby communities
 Provisions are needed for safe disposal of dangerous materials and products.
Colleagiality & Its Elements
‘Collegiality is a kind of connectedness grounded in respect for professional

expertise and in a commitment to the goals and values of the profession and as
such, collegiality includes a disposition to support and co-operate with one’s
colleagues’.
- Craig Ihara
The central elements of collegiality are respect, commitment, connectedness and co-
operation.
Respect: Acknowledge the worth of other engineers engaged in producing socially

useful and safe products.
Commitment: Share a devotion to the moral ideals inherent in the practice of
engineering.
Connectedness: Aware of being part of a co-operative undertaking created by
shared commitments and expertise.
Collegiality, like most virtues, can be misused and distorted.
It should not be reduced to ‘group interest’ but should be a shared devotion for
public good.
It is not defaming colleagues, but it does not close the eyes to unethical
practices of the co-professionals, either.
Classifications of Loyalty
 Agency-Loyalty
o Fulfill one’s contractual duties to an employer.

o Duties are particular tasks for which one is paid
o Co-operating with colleagues
o Following legitimate authority within the organization.
 Identification-Loyalty:
o It has to do with attitudes, emotions and a sense of personal identity.

o Seeks to meet one’s moral duties with personal attachment and affirmation.
o It is against detesting their employers and companies, and do work
reluctantly and horribly (this is construed as disloyalty)
This means
o Avoid conflicts of interest,
o Inform employers of any possible conflicts of interest,
o Protect confidential information,
o Be honest in making estimates,
o Admit one’s errors, etc.
Loyalty - Obligation of Engineers
Agency-Loyalty
o Engineers are hired to do their duties.

o Hence obligated to employers within proper limits
Identification-Loyalty
Obligatory on two conditions;

1. When some important goals are met by and through a group in which the
engineers participate
2. When employees are treated fairly, receiving the share of benefits and
burdens.
But clearly, identification-loyalty is a virtue and not strictly an obligation.
Relationship - Professionalism and Loyalty
1. Acting on professional commitments to the public is more effective to serve a

company than just following company orders.
2. Loyalty to employers may not mean obeying one’s immediate supervisor.
3. Professional obligations to both an employer and to the public might

strengthen rather than contradict each other.
Need for Authority
Authority is needed since

a) Allowing everyone to exercise uncontrolled individual discretion creates chaos
(confusion).
b) Clear lines of authority identifies areas of personal responsibility and
accountability.
Institutional Authority and Expert Authority
Institutional authority
‘The institutional right given to a person to exercise power based on the resources of
the institution’.
o It is acquired, exercised and defined within institutions.

o It is given to individuals to perform their institutional duties assigned within the
organisation. There is not always a perfect match between the authority
granted and the qualifications needed to exercise it.
Expert authority
‘The possession of special knowledge, skill or competence to perform some task or

to give sound advice’.
Engineers may have expert authority but their institutional authority, may only be, to
provide management with analysis of possible ways to perform a technical task, after
which they are restricted to following management’s directive about which option to
pursue. In large companies, engineers, advisors and consultants in staff function
carry expert authority, while institutional authority is vested only with line managers.
Authority Vs Power
Ineffective persons, even if vested with authority by their institution, may not be able
to summon the power their position allows them to exercise. On the other hand,
people who are effective may be able to wield greater power that goes beyond the
authority attached to the positions they hold. Highly respected engineers of proven
integrity belong to this class.
Authority - Morally justified
Observations on authority.
o An employer who has institutional authority may direct engineers to do

something that is not morally justified.
o Engineers may feel that they have an institutional duty to obey a directive that
is morally unjustified, but their moral duty, all things considered, is not to obey.
o To decide whether a specific act of exercising institutional authority is morally

justified, we need to know whether the institutional goals are themselves
morally permissible or desirable and whether that act violates basic moral
duties.
‘Zone Of Acceptance’ of Authority
‘A subordinate is said to accept authority whenever he permits his behaviour to be

guided by the decision of a superior, without independently examining the merits of
that decision’
- Herbert Simon
o Simon notes that all employees tend to have a ‘zone of acceptance’ in which
they are willing to accept their employer’s authority.
o Within that zone, an individual, relaxing his own critical faculties, permits the
decision of the employer to guide him.
o Employees generally do not make an issue of questionable incidents on

morality, out of a sense of responsibility to give their employer leeway within
which to operate and often not to risk their jobs.
o The problem increases when employees slowly expand the boundaries of

tolerance and rationalize it.
This only shows that engineers should never stop critically reviewing the employer’s
directives especially on moral issues.
‘Faithful Agent Argument’
National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code states,
“The engineer ………will act in professional matters for client, or employer as a

faithful agent or trustee……………He will not actively participate in strikes, picket
lines or other coercive action”
meaning that when one is a faithful trustee of one’s employer he cannot actively
participate in any collective forcible action.
Board of Ethical Review argued that engineers have a higher standard than self
interest and that their ethical duty is to act for their employer as a faithful agent or
trustee.
Collective bargaining is inconsistent with loyalty to employers because it

o is against the desires of the employer
o uses force or coercion against the employer and
o involves collective and organized opposition.
But every instance of such conduct need not be unethical.
An example:
Three engineers sincerely feel that they are underpaid. After their representations to
their bosses are in vain, they threaten their employer, politely, that they would seek
employment elsewhere. Here, even though, they act against the desires of their
employer and have acted collectively, they have not acted unethically or violated
their duty.
Conclusion: ‘Faithful agency’ only concerns with performing one’s duty but does not
mean that safety, salary and other economical benefits cannot be negotiated from a
position of strength. Employee’s duty to employer does not mean unlimited sacrifice
of self-interest.
‘Public Service Argument’- Collective bargaining.
o ‘Public Service Argument’ is an argument against collective bargaining.

o The paramount duty of engineers is to serve the public.
o Unions, by definition, promote the interests of their members and whenever
there is a clash of interests, the interest of the general public is ignored by
them. Though the argument is a valid one, it looks at the worst possible
scenarios with unions and decides that engineering unions act only
irresponsibly.
o A body of engineers can promote engineers’ interest within limits set by
professional concern for the public good.
Benefits of Collective Bargaining.
a) Unions have created healthy salaries and high standard of living of

employees.
b) They give a sense of participation in company decision making.
c) They are a good balance to the power of employers to fire employees at will.
d) They provide an effective grievance redressal procedure for employee
complaints.
Harms Caused by Collective Bargaining.
a) Unions are devastating the economy of a country, being a main source of

inflation
b) With unions, there is no congenial (friendly), cooperative decision making.
c) Unions does not promote quality performance by making job promotion and
retention based on seniority.
d) They encourage unrest and strained relations between employees and
employers.
‘Confidentiality or confidential information’
o Information considered desirable to be kept secret.

o Any information that the employer or client would like to have kept secret in order
to compete effectively against business rivals.
o This information includes how business is run, its products, and suppliers, which
directly affects the ability of the company to compete in the market place
o Helps the competitor to gain advantage or catch up
Privileged information, Proprietary information and Patents.
o Privileged information:
 ‘Information available only on the basis of special privilege’ such as
granted to an employee working on a special assignment.
o Proprietary information:
 Information that a company owns or is the proprietor of.
 This is primarily used in legal sense.
 Also called Trade Secret. A trade secret can be virtually any type of
information that has not become public and which an employer has taken
steps to keep secret.
o Patents:
 Differ from trade secrets.
 Legally protect specific products from being manufactured and sold by
competitors without the express permission of the patent holder.
 They have the drawback of being public and competitors may easily work
around them by creating alternate designs.
Obligation of Confidentiality
1. Based on ordinary moral considerations:
I. Respect for autonomy:

o Recognizing the legitimate control over private information (individuals or
corporations).
o This control is required to maintain their privacy and protect their self-
interest.
II. Respect for Promise:

o Respecting promises in terms of employment contracts not to divulge
certain information considered sensitive by the employer
III. Regard for public well being:

o Only when there is a confidence that the physician will not reveal
information, the patient will have the trust to confide in him.
o Similarly only when companies maintain some degree of confidentiality
concerning their products, the benefits of competitiveness within a free
market are promoted.
2. Based on Major Ethical Theories:

oAll theories profess that employers have moral and institutional rights to
decide what information about their organization should be released
publicly.
oThey acquire these rights as part of their responsibility to protect the
interest of the organization.
oAll the theories, rights ethics, duty ethics and utilitarianism justify this
confidentiality but in different ways.
Effect of Change of Job on Confidentiality
o Employees are obliged to protect confidential information regarding former

employment, after a change of job.
o The confidentiality trust between employer and employee continues beyond
the period of employment.
o But, the employee cannot be forced not to seek a change of job.
o The employer’s right to keep the trade secrets confidential by a former
employee should be accepted at the same time, the employee’s right to seek
career advancement cannot also be denied.
Conflict of Interest
Conflict of Interest arises when two conditions are met:
1. The professional is in a relationship or a role that requires exercising good

judgment on behalf of the interests of an employer or client and
2. The professional has some additional or side interest that could threaten good
judgment in serving the interests of the employee or client. E.g. When an
engineer is paid based on a percentage of the cost of the design and there is
no incentive for him to cut costs- The distrust caused by this situation
compromises the engineers’ ability to cut costs and calls into question his
judgement.
‘An act of gift’ and ‘An act of bribe’
‘A gift is a bribe if you can’t eat, drink or smoke it in a day’.
‘If you think that your offer of acceptance of a particular gift would have grave or
merely embarrassing consequences for your company if made public, then the gift
should be considered a bribe’.
‘Bribe can be said to be a substantial amount of money or goods offered beyond a

stated business contract with the aim of winning an advantage in gaining or keeping
the contract’.
Here ‘substantial’ means that which is sufficient to distort the judgment of a typical
person.
Conflict of Interest created by Interest in other companies
 When one works actually for the competitor or subcontractor as an employee

or consultant.
 Having partial ownership or substantial stock holdings in the competitor’s
business.
 It may not arise by merely having a spouse working for sub-contractor to
one’s company, but it will arise if one’s job also includes granting contracts to
that subcontractor.
 Tempting customers away from their current employer, while still working for
them to form their own competing business.
 Moonlighting usually creates conflicts when working for competitors, suppliers
or customers but does not conflict when working for others without affecting
the present employer’s business.
‘Moonlighting’ means working in one’s spare time for another employer.
Conflicts of Interest created by Insider information
o Using inside information to set-up a business opportunity for oneself or family

or friends.
o Buying stock in the company for which one works is not objectionable but it
should be based on the same information available to the public.
o The use of any company secrets by employee to secure a personal gain
threatens the interest of the company.
Avoiding Conflicts Of Interests
o Taking guidance from Company Policy

o In the absence of such a policy taking a second opinion from a coworker or
manager. This gives an impression that there no intension on the part of the
engineer to hide anything.
o In the absence of either of these options, to examine ones own motives and use
the ethical problem solving techniques.
o One can look carefully into the professional codes of ethics which uniformly forbid
conflicts of interest. Some of these codes have very explicit statements that can
help determine whether or not the situation constitutes conflict of interest.
Types Of Crime
 Domestic crime
Non-accidental crime committed by members
of the family
 Professional Crime
When crime is pursued as a profession or day
to day occupation
 Blue collar crime (or) Street crime
Crime against person, property (theft, assault
on a person, rape)
 Victimless crime
Person who commits the crime is the victim of
the crime. E.g. Drug addiction
 Hate crime
Crime done on the banner of religion,
community, linguistics
Occupational Crime
 Occupational crimes are illegal acts made possible through one’s lawful
employment.
 It is the secretive violation of laws regulating work activities.
 When committed by office workers or professionals, occupational crime is
called ‘white collar crime’.
People Committing Occupational Crimes
 Usually have high standard of education

 From a non-criminal family background
 Middle class male around 27 years of age (70% of the time) with no previous
history
 No involvement in drug or alcohol abuse
 Those who had troublesome life experience in the childhood (Blum)
 People without firm principles (Spencer)
 Firms with declining profitability (Coleman, 1994)
 Firms in highly regulated areas and volatile market -pharmaceutical,
petroleum industry.(Albanese, 1995)
Price Fixing
An act was passed, which forbade (prevented) companies from jointly setting prices
in ways that restrain free competition and trade. Unfortunately, many senior people,
well respected and positioned were of the opinion that ‘price fixing’ was good for their
organizations and the public.
Employees Endangering Lives of Employees
Employers indulge in exposing their employees to safety hazards. They escape

criminal action against them, by paying nominal compensations even if their crimes
are proved in court. And even this happens only when the victim sues company for
damages under civil law.
Engineers’ Moral Rights
Engineers’ moral rights fall into categories of human, employee, contractual and
professional rights.
Professional rights:
The right to form and express one’s professional judgment freely
The right to refuse to carry out illegal and unethical activity
The right to talk publicly about one’s work within bounds set by confidentiality
obligation
The right to engage in the activities of professional societies
The right to protect the clients and the public from the dangers that might arise from
one’s work
The right to professional recognition of one’s services.
Right of Professional Conscience
o There is one basic and generic professional right of engineers, the moral right
to exercise responsible professional judgment in pursuing professional
responsibilities.
o Pursuing these responsibilities involves exercising both technical judgment
and reasoned moral convictions.
o This basic right can be referred to as the right of professional conscience.
Right of Conscientious Refusal
The right of Conscientious refusal is the right to refuse to engage in unethical

behaviour and to refuse to do so solely because one views it as unethical.
Two situations to be considered.
1. Where there is widely shared agreement in profession as to whether an act is

unethical
Here, professionals have a moral right to refuse to participate in such activities.
2. Where there is room for disagreement among reasonable people over whether an
act is unethical.
Here, it is possible that there could be different ethical view points from the
professional and the employer.
In such cases the engineers can have a limited right to turn down assignments that
violates their personal conscience only in matters of great importance such as
threats to human life.
This right also depends on the ability of the employer to reassign the engineer to
alternate projects without serious economic hardships to the orgn.
The right of professional conscience does not extend to the right to be paid for not
working.
Right to Recognition
Right to Recognition involves two parts.
The right to reasonable remuneration gives the moral right for fighting against
corporations making good profits while engineers are being paid poorly. Also is the
case where patents are not being rewarded properly by the corporations benefiting
from such patents.
The other right to recognition is non-monetary part of recognition to the work of

engineers.
But what is reasonable remuneration or reasonable recognition is a difficult question

and should be resolved by discussions between employees and employers only.
Professional Rights & Ethical Theories
1. Rights Ethics:
o The most basic human right, which needs no justification, as per A.I.Meldon, is to
pursue one’s legitimate (those that do not violate others’ rights) interests.
o The right to pursue legitimate interests gives a person right to pursue
professional moral obligations.
o This may be viewed as a human right of conscience directly derived from the
basic human right.
2. Duty Ethics:
o I have a right to something only because others have duties or obligations to
allow me (and not interfere) to do so.
o If we derive the meaning of ‘others’ as employers, then the basic professional
right is justified by reference to others’ duties to support or not interfere with the
work related exercise of conscience by professionals.
3. Utilitarianism:
o Public good can be served by allowing professionals to meet their obligations to

the public.
o These obligations arise due to the professional’s role in promoting public good.
o The basic goal of producing the most good for the greatest number of people is
enough to justify the right of professional conscience.
Whistle-blowing and Its Features
Whistle blowing is an act of conveying information about a significant moral problem

by a present or former employee, outside approved channels (or against strong
pressure) to someone, in a position to take action on the problem.
The features of Whistle blowing are:

 Act of Disclosure: Intentionally conveying information outside approved
organizational channels when the person is under pressure not to do so from
higher-ups.
 Topic: The information is believed to concern a significant moral problem for
the organization.
 Agent: The person disclosing the information is an employee or former
employee.
 Recipient: The information is conveyed to a person or organization who can
act on it.
Types of Whistle Blowing
External Whistle blowing: The act of passing on information outside the organisation.
Internal Whistle blowing: The act of passing on information to someone within the
organization but outside the approved channels.
Either type is likely to be considered as disloyalty, but the second one is often seen
as less serious than the latter. From corporations’ point of view both are serious
because it leads to distrust, disharmony, and inability of the employees to work
together.
Open Whistle blowing: Individuals openly revealing their identity as they convey the
information.
Anonymous Whistle blowing: Individual conveying the information conceals his/her
identity.
Procedures to be followed before Whistle Blowing

• Except for extreme emergencies, always try working through normal
organizational channels.
• Be prompt in expressing objections.
• Proceed in a tactful manner with due consideration to the feelings of others
involved.
• As much as possible, keep supervisors informed of your actions, both
informally and formally.
• Be accurate in observations and claims and keep all formal records
documenting relevant events.
• Consult colleagues for advice and also to avoid isolation.
• Consult the ethics committee of your professional society before going outside
the organization.
• Consult a lawyer regarding potential legal liabilities.
A great deal of introspection and reflection are required before WB. Motive
should neither be for revenge upon fellow employee, supervisor or company nor
in the hope of future gains like book contracts or speaking tours etc.
Conditions to be satisfied before Whistle Blowing
Richard T. De George suggests the following:
1. The harm that will be done by the product to the public is serious and
considerable.
2. The individual makes his/her concern known to his/her superiors

.
3. If one does not get any proper response from immediate superiors, then one
should exhaust the channels that are available within the organization
including the board of directors.
4. One must have documented evidence that would convince a reasonable and
impartial observer that one’s view of the situation is correct and the company
policy is wrong.
5. There must be strong evidence that making the information public will in fact
prevent the threatened serious harm.
Prevention of Whistle Blowing
The following actions will prevent/reduce whistle blowing:
1. Giving direct access to higher levels of management by announcing ‘open

door’ policies with guarantee that there won’t be retaliation. Instead such
employees should be rewarded for fostering ethical behavior in the company.
2. This gives greater freedom and promotes open communication within the
organization.
3. Creation of an Ethics Review Committee with freedom to investigate
complaints and make independent recommendations to top management.
4. Top priority should be given to promote ethical conduct in the organization by
top management.
5. Engineers should be allowed to discuss in confidence, their moral concerns
with the ethics committee of their professional societies.
6. When there are differences on ethical issues between engineers and
management, ethics committee members of the professional societies should
be allowed to enter into these discussions.
7. Changes and updations in law must be explored by engineers, organizations,

professional societies and government organizations on a continuous basis.
Employee Rights
Employee rights are any rights, moral or legal, that involve the status of being an
employee.
Employee rights are:
 There should be no discrimination against an employee for criticizing ethical,

moral or legal policies and practices of the organization.
 The organization will not also discriminate against an employee for engaging in
outside activities or for objecting to an organization directive that violates
common norms of morality.
 The employee will not be deprived of any enjoyment of reasonable privacy in

his/her workplace.
 No personal information about employees will be collected or kept other than

what is necessary to manage the organization efficiently and to meet the legal
requirements.
 No employee who alleges that her/his rights have been violated will be
discharged or penalized without a fair hearing by the employer organization.
Some clear examples: falsifying data, avoidance on the safety of a product
Discrimination
o Discrimination generally means preference on the grounds of sex, race, skin

colour, age or religious outlook.
o In everyday speech, it has come to mean morally unjustified treatment of
people on arbitrary or irrelevant grounds.
o Therefore to call something ‘Discrimination” is to condemn it.
o But when the question of justification arises, we will call it ‘Preferential
Treatment’.
Intellectual Property Rights
 Intellectual Property is a product of the human intellect that has commercial value
 Many of the rights of the ownership common to real and personal property are
also common to Intellectual Property
 Intellectual Property can be bought, sold, and licensed
 Similarly it can be protected against theft and infringement by others
Patent, Design & Trademark together with Copyright form TOTAL

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Patent
1. Derived from the Latin word ‘LITTERAE PATENTES’ which means ‘Open
Letters’ or ‘Open Documents’ to confer rights and privileges.
2. A contract between an Inventor and the Government
3. An exclusive privilege monopoly right granted by the Government to the
Inventor
4. Invention may be of an Industrial product or process of manufacture
5. Invention should be new, non-obvious, useful and patentable as per Patents
Act
6. The right to the inventor is for limited period of time and valid only within the
territorial limits of a country of grant.
Examples: a drug compound, a tool, maybe

software effects
DESIGN
 Meant for beautifying an industrial product to attract the consumer public

 Shaping, Configuration or Ornamentation of a vendible Industrial product
 Exclusive ‘Design Rights’ to the originator for a limited term
 Patents & design embrace the production stage of an industrial activity
TRADE MARK
 Trade Mark is a name or symbol adopted for identifying goods

 Public can identify from the Trade Mark from whom the product is emanating
 Trade Marks protection is given for an industrial product by the Government
Examples: Channel No.5’s smell, Jacque Villeneuve’s face!
COPY RIGHTS
 The right to original literary and artistic works
• Literary, written material

• Dramatic, musical or artistic works
• Films and audio-visual materials
• Sound recordings
• Computer Programmes/software
• SOME databases
Example: Picasso’s Guernica, Microsoft code, Lord of the Rings
Need For A Patent System
 Encourages an inventor to disclose his invention

 Encourages R & D activities as the industries can make use of the technology,
& avoids reduntant research
 Provides reasonable assurance for commercialisation.
 Provides an inducement to invest capital in the new lines of production and thus
, help for technical development and upgradation.
 One may get a very good return of income through Patent Right on the
investment made in R & D.
Effect of Patent
 A patentee gets the exclusive monopoly right against the public at large to
use,sell or manufacture his patented device.
 A patentee can enforce his monopoly right against any infringement in the court
of law for suitable damages or profit of account.
 The Government ensures full disclosure of the invention to the public for
exchange of exclusive monopoly patent right to the inventor.
UNIT V - GLOBAL ISSUES
1. Give an account of Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide's pesticide-manufacturing plant in Bhopal,

India leaked 40 tons of the deadly gas, methyl isocyanate into a sleeping,
impoverished community - killing 2,500 within a few days, 10000 permanently
disabled and injuring 100,000 people. Ten years later, it increased to 4000 to 7000
deaths and injuries to 600,000.
Risks taken:
 Storage tank of Methyl Isocyanate gas was filled to more than 75% capacity as
against Union Carbide’s spec. that it should never be more than 60% full.
 The company’s West Virginia plant was controlling the safety systems and
detected leakages thro’ computers but the Bhopal plant only used manual labour
for control and leak detection.
 The Methyl Isocyanate gas, being highly concentrated, burns parts of body with
which it comes into contact, even blinding eyes and destroying lungs.
Causal Factors:
• Three protective systems out of service
• Plant was understaffed due to costs.
• Very high inventory of MIC, an extremely toxic material.
• The accident occurred in the early morning.
• Most of the people killed lived in a shanty (poorly built) town located very
close to the plant fence.
Workers made the following attempts to save the plant:
• They tried to turn on the plant refrigeration system to cool down the
environment and slow the reaction. (The refrigeration system had been
drained of coolant weeks before and never refilled -- it cost too much.)
• They tried to route expanding gases to a neighboring tank. (The tank's
pressure gauge was broken and indicated the tank was full when it was really
empty.)
• They tried to purge the gases through a scrubber. (The scrubber was
designed for flow rates, temperatures and pressures that were a fraction of
what was by this time escaping from the tank. The scrubber was as a result
ineffective.)
• They tried to route the gases through a flare tower -- to burn them away. (The
supply line to the flare tower was broken and hadn't been replaced.)
• They tried to spray water on the gases and have them settle to the ground --
by this time the chemical reaction was nearly completed. (The gases were
escaping at a point 120 feet above ground; the hoses were designed to shoot
water up to 100 feet into the air.)
In just 2 hours the chemicals escaped to form a deadly cloud over hundreds of
thousands of people incl. poor migrant labourers who stayed close to the plant.
2. What are the benefits of Multi National corporations doing business in less
developed countries for both the MNCs and the host country?
Benefits to MNCs:
 Inexpensive labour
 Availability of natural resources
 Favourable tax conditions
 Fresh markets for products
Benefits to developing host countries:
 New jobs
 Greater pay and greater challenge
 Transfer of advanced technology
 Social benefits from sharing wealth
3. What are the three senses of relative values?
3.1. Ethical Relativism

• Actions are morally right in a particular society if they are approved by law,
custom, or other conventions of the society.
3.2. Descriptive Relativism

• Value beliefs and attitudes differ from culture to culture and this is a fact.
3.3. Moral Relationalism or Contextualism (Ethical pluralism)

• Moral judgements should be made in relation to factors that vary between issues.
Hence it is not possible to formulate rules that are simple and applicably to all
situations.
4. Which standards should guide engineers’ conduct when working in foreign

countries?
Alternate 1: ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’

Alternate 2. Follow the identical practices which were followed in the home country.
Both are unacceptable. A via media should be found based on the context.
5. What are the International Rights as enumerated by Thomas Donaldson?
• The right to freedom of physical movement

• The right to ownership of property
• The right to freedom from torture
• The right to a fair deal
• The right to non-discriminatory treatment
• The right to physical security
• The right to freedom of speech and association
• The right to minimal education
• The right to political participation
• The right to subsistence
6. What can MNCs do to promote morally just measures? Or what are Richard
T. De George’s guidelines for moral promotion by MNCs?
• MNCs business should do more overall good than bad towards the economy of
the host country than doing good to a few corrupt leaders in oppressive regimes.
• They must respect laws and regulations of the local country as long as they do
not violate basic moral rights.
• They must pay a living wage, even when local companies fail to pay such a
wage, but otherwise pay only enough to attract competent workers.
• It is permissible for the US to transfer dangerous technology like asbestos
production to another country and then simply adopt that country’s safety laws only
under the following conditions.
– Workers may be so desperate for income to feed their families that
they will work under almost any conditions
– Pay workers for the extra risk
 Good judgements exercised in good faith, than abstract principles, is the only
way to address practical problems.
7. Write in brief about Technology Transfer and Appropriate Technology?
7.1. Technology Transfer:
‘The process of moving technology to a novel setting and implementing there.’
• Novel setting is any situation containing at least one new variable relevant to
success or failure of given technology
• Transfer of technology from a familiar to a new environment is a complex
process
7.2. Appropriate Technology:
‘Identification, transfer, and implementation of the most suitable technology for a new
set of conditions’
• Conditions include social factors that go beyond routine economic and

technical engineering constraints
• Identifying them requires attention to an array of human values and needs
that may influence how a technology affects the novel situation
• Intermediate technology
8. How is environment degraded?
1. By causing injuries to nature
i.Usually this damage is caused slowly
ii.Sometimes this also happens in sudden strikes
2. Misuse of our resources, fouling our environment
3. Practicing growths in consumptions and population leading to non-
availability of resources
4. Industrial activity denudes land(to destroy all plant and animal life), pollutes
atmosphere and water, reduces the yield from sea and land
9. What are the questions to be answered by Engineers in their role as

experimenters?
• How does an industry affect the environment?

• How far it can be controlled?
• Whether protective measures are available and implemented?
• Whether engineers can ensure safe & clean environment?
10. What is acid rain? What are its effects?
Acid rain:
 pH of normal rain is 5.6
 pH of rainfall in north eastern areas of North America is 3.9 to 4.3.
 It is 10 to 100 times more acidic than normal. This is ‘acid rain’.
 Snowmelt into water releases huge amount of acid which got frozen during
winter.
Effects:
 ‘Acid shock’ from snowmelt causes mass destruction of fish. On long term it also
harms fish eggs and sources of food.
 Thousands of lakes were killed by acid rain in Scandinavia and North America.
 The causes are burning of fossil fuels leading to release of SO2 in particular and
Nitrogen oxides.
 Problems of Sweden caused by Industrial plants in England and North Europe.
 Problems of North America caused by utilities in Ohio valley, the largest polluter
of SO2 in USA.
 Some of the potential changes are still unknown
 Micro organisms in soil are being affected
 Groundwater is polluted but its ultimate effects are not known
 The effects may be known only after another 100 years
 Effect on food sources are also unclear
11. What are the other problems caused to the environment?
 Build-up of CO2 from the use of fossil fuels by Industrial nations could result in
Greenhouse effect.
 Damage to protective OZONE layer due to the release of Freon is related to
technological products used by the people of these nations.
12. What is Greenhouse effect?
‘Greenhouse Effect’ is defined as ‘The progressive warming up of earth’s surface

due to blanketing effect of man made CO2 in the atmosphere.’
A greenhouse is that body which allows the short wavelength incoming solar
radiation to come in, but does not allow the long wave outgoing infra red radiation to
escape. The earth’s atmosphere bottles up the energy of the sun and it acts like a
green house, where CO2 acts like a glass windows.
13. What are the effects of Greenhouse?
 The temperature effect of the CO2 and water vapour combined together has a
long range impact on the global climate.
 Because of increased concentration of CO2 and due to much warmer tropical
oceans, there may occur cyclones and hurricanes and early snow melt in
mountains will cause more floods during monsoon.
 Increase in global temperature can adversely effect the world food production.
 At higher altitudes in the atmosphere, CO2 undergoes photochemical reactions
producing CO, which is drastically dangerous.
 CFCs are responsible for 20% increase in warming. This may increase the
chances of diseases in humans and animals.
14. Describe the case study of environmental degradation caused by PCB &
Kanemi’s Oil?
In Southern Japan, in 1968 a large number of people suffered by disfigurement of

skin, discolouration, fatigue, numbness, respiratory distress, vomiting and loss of
hair.
– 10,000 people got affected & some died
– Two groups of 121 people each were tested and results were as follows:
• It was found that fried food using rice oil produced by Kanemi company
was eaten which caused the problem
• After 7 months of investigation….
– It was found that the presence of Polychlorinated biphenyl-PCB was
the cause for the effects and it was present in the rice oil.
– Rice Oil was heated at low pressure to remove the odour thro’ a heat
exchanger and a liquid known as KANECHLOR which contained PCB
was used for heat transfer
– Pipes of the heat exchanger was corroded and led to leakage thro’
those pinholes.
– In fact, Kanemi had been replenishing 27 kgs of lost PCB per month for
sometime without realizing the seriousness.
• Indirect path – this rice was used as chicken-feed and half of one million
chickens that were fed died.
Other Similar Effects:

 Plastic bakery wrappers containing PCB mixed with ground stale bread
was used as chicken-feed and 140000 chickens had to be slaughtered in
New York.
 PCB leaked into fishmeal from a heating system in North Carolina plant
and 12000 tons of fishmeal were contaminated and 88000 chicken, fed
with fishmeal had to be destroyed.
 High pressure injection of water near Baldwin Dam in Los Angeles caused
the reservoir crack open along a fault line. The water released killed 5 and
damaged property worth $14 million.
15. How can we internalise Costs of Environmental Degradation?
 Time cost of a product – includes numerous factors like effect of pollution, the
depletion of energy and raw materials, social costs, etc.
 If these costs are internalized (added to the price), then the cost can be
charged directly to the beneficiary of the degradation of environment.
 It is better to make the user to pay for all its costs than to levy higher taxes.
 An acceptable mechanism for price fixing must be found by the engineer with
the help of the economist, scientist, lawyer and politician which could protect
the environment through self correcting procedures.
 Good design practices may give better environmental protection without
added cost.
16. Give a brief account of Technology Assessment?

o Engineers are said to be finding the right answers for the wrong questions
o Finding the right questions is much more difficult than finding the right
answers to these questions
o Engineers should
 Try to assess the technology and its environmental impacts and focus
on containing the major adverse effects.
 During assessment even if engineers were strongly believe that the
projects have no adverse effect, they should continue to monitor the
outcome even after its implementation which only would give the
complete picture of the consequences of the project.
17. Write short notes on Sentient – Centered Ethics, Bio – Centric Ethics,
Ecocentric Ethics and Human – Centered Environmental Ethics.
Sentient – Centered Ethics
Sentient animals are those which feel pain and pleasure. This version of Nature-
centered ethics is advanced by some utilitarians, notably Peter Singer, who says that
right action maximizing good for all should include sentient animals as well as
humans. Failure to do so leads discrimination like racism, which is known as
‘Speciesism’. There is always a dispute as to whether the inherent worth of animals
can be equated to human beings or not.
Bio – Centric Ethics
This regards all living organisms as having inherent worth. We should live with the
virtue of ‘reverence to life’, as set forth by Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965). This will
enable us to take decisions about when life can be sacrificed.
Ecocentric Ethics
This locates inherent worth in Ecological systems and this approach is different from
the other two, as it is not individualistic. This is voiced by Aldo Leopold (1887-1948).
There is another view that ecocentric ethic does not replace socially generated
human-oriented duties to family, neighbours and humanity
Human – Centered Environmental Ethics
This is an extension of ethical theories to combat threats to human beings presented

by the destruction of nature.
18. Define computer ethics?
Computer Ethics deals with ‘the evaluation of and decision making in a variety of
moral problems caused by computers’.
19. What shifts are caused in power relationships by Computers?
Power relationship caused by Computers:

1. Job Elimination:
 Computers still continue to lead to elimination of jobs.
 While employees cannot be paid when there is no work, all attempts are to be
made by employers to readjust work assignments and retain employees.
 The absence of this practice creates an employee or pubic backlash against
introduction of Computers.
2. Customer Relations:
 It is very easy for a customer to notice an error in a computer printout, of the
price difference between what is shown at the shelf and what is shown in cash
receipt register.
 Here moral sense and long term business requirement requires that the
policies should be made favourable to consumers.
3. Biased Software:
A group of people with known convictions, may tend to produce software
which favours their views rather than views from all angles to let the user
decide finally.
4. Stock Trading:
Automatic, hands-off trading of stocks and currency can be performed,
benefiting the trading community but it will harm the intended purposes.
5. Unrealistic Expectations:
Sales personnel have a tendency to oversell systems that are too large for
customers’ requirements; sometimes even those which are not ready for
delivery.
6. Political Power:
By obtaining information about different groups of people regarding their
attitudes and values, the computers can be made to help politicians to make
speeches, send mails, etc. which would be appealing selectively to these
groups.
7. Military Weapons:
Computerised military weapons, even if perfected, will only make opposing
countries to develop their striking or responding capability which is not healthy
for the world.
20. What problems are encountered in the use of computers with properties?
The two major problems encountered in the use of computers with properties are:
1. Embezzlement and
2. Theft of software and information
21. How the problem of embezzlement takes place through computers and
why?
 The speed and geographic coverage of the computer system and the difficulty
of tracing the transactions through computers makes catching the thieves
troublesome.
 Computers are abused in i) stealing by employees at work, ii) stealing by non-
employees or former employees, iii) stealing from or cheating clients and
consumers, iv) violating contracts for computer sales or service and v)
conspiring to use computer networks to engage in widespread fraud.
 Penalties for computer crime are mild compared to conventional crimes.
 Passwords and more recently, data encryptions are used for security with
limited effectiveness.
22. Explain briefly about Data and Software with respect to property problems.
 ‘Data’ is information stored in a computer.

 ‘Software’ or ‘program’ consists of i) an algorithm, ii) a source code and iii) an
object code.
 Software can be protected by Copyrights and Trade secret laws. Patenting on
software is limited to detailed coding sequences but not final products.
Algorithms and object codes cannot be copyrighted. But source code can be
copyrighted.
Eg. Buying one copy and reproducing dozens of copies.
23. Describe how and in what ways ‘violation of privacy’ occurs in and through
Computers.
Computers make more information available to more people. This makes protection
of computer privacy difficult.
1. Inappropriate Access:
 Documents recorded for a crime which one did not commit but was arrested.
 As a child you were arrested for drinking alcohol
 Medical data about visits to a psychiatrist.
 A loan default to a National Bank.
Any of the above information can be accessed by, let us say, a prospective employer
during a security check.
2. Data Bank Errors:

 Even erroneous information when generated by computers is taken to be
authenticated.
 Immediate reaction to such wrong information may mostly prove to be incorrect.
3. Hackers:
 ‘Hackers’ are people who compulsively challenge any computer security system,
choke networks, give out false information, etc.
 This can be extremely harmful.
 It is a violation of property rights.
 At the least, it reduces productivity by shutting down systems.
 Individual privacy, national security, freedom to protect proprietary information
are three values requiring limits on access to information.
24. How has law responded to computer abuses?
 A series of laws enacted to prevent abuse of information.

 Information can be accessed only by consumer consent or court order.
 Consumers have the right to examine and challenge information contained in
computers.
25. What Professional Issues arise in Computer ethics?
Owing to the high degree of job complexity and technical proficiency required, a lot
of issues arise in engineering ethics.
1. Computer failures:
 Failures can occur due to either hardware or software
 Hardware errors do not occur frequently.
 Software errors are the major failures of the computers.
 Hardware errors are easily detected.
 Software errors are difficult to detect.
 Trial runs are absolutely essential to check the program.
2. Computer Implementation:
 New computer system should be attempted successfully before the old one
becomes inoperative. Many failure cases have been reported while switching
over to a new system.
3. Health Conditions:
 Ergonomic conditions should be implemented to reduce back problems, provide
wrist support, to become good looking.
26. Give one argument each for and against Weapons Development?
 Weapons Development is a defensive measure against greater destruction by

political adversaries, terrorists and enemy states.
 They are devices to kill human beings, innocent civilians or equally unwilling
soldiers on the other side.
27. What should engineers do in taking part in Weapons development?
Engineers need to examine one’s conscience to take part in any form of weapon
development.
o They have to consider the circumstances leading to the specific conflict and
decide whether it is justified to take part in associated weapons development.
o If necessary, they should refuse to be a part of it and be prepared to face
consequences.
28. How much is being spent in Defence expenditure and how Arms Trade gets
promoted by private manufacturers of arms?
o Hundreds of billions of dollars, annually, throughout the world, are being spent
for military operations.
o 25% of this is spent on just procurement of weapons.
o 17% of these are spent in transactions across countries.
Promotion of Arms Deals:
1. Krupp, a family of successful arms merchants and manufacturers

 Armies and navies invested in Krupp’s nickel steel armour
 Then Krupp made chrome steel shells that can pierce nickel leading to further
investment by military.
 Then they made a high-carbon armour plate that can resist the new shells
resulting in more orders
 Then Krupp again produces, ‘capped shot’ with explosive noses which can
pierce through the high-carbon armoured plate also
 Arms deals continued to flourish
2. Vickers and Schneider-another arms manufacturer
 Supplying arms to Chinese, Japanese and Russians
 Pointing out the growth of the Japanese navy to Chinese
 Pointing out the growth of the Chinese to their rivals, Russians
 Russia – Japanese war in 1905 was useful for the cause of arms
manufacturers.
 Russians lost the war, hence ordered fresh arms for rehabilitation
 Japanese won the war, but were upset since terrible bloodbath was caused
by Russians machine guns on land.
29. Describe the destructive nature and power of weapons and their
development?
 Towards the end of World War II, night raids sometimes on civilian areas were
very common
 The deaths caused by Atom bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki were not more than
the deaths caused by single air raids in World War II
 But they were horrible because of their power in rapid delivery of destructive
power in immense concentration
 Hiroshima Bomb – equivalent to 20000T of TNT powder carried on 267 bogies of
railroad (2 miles long) for one bomb – again equivalent to 740-B52 bombers to
carry this load.
 USSR exploded Hydrogen bombs in 1960 – 50 & 60 mega ton range for tests
with capabilities such as:
 2000 to 3000 times powerful than Hiroshima bomb
 4000 to 6000 miles long train required to carry an equivalent amount of
TNT powder which will take 100 hours to pass any point
 Will require one and a half million planes +(bombers) to carry the
powder
Towards the end of cold war
 USSR had 5800 megatons (9500 warheads on 2700 launchers) and
 USA had 3300 megatons (10800 warheads on 2000 launchers)
30. Illustrate the involvement of engineers in Weapons Development with

examples.
1. Bob is employed by a firm manufacturing anti-personnel bombs. These bombs tie

up much of the enemy’s resources in treating the wounded who survive its explosion
(by showering its fragments on to the victims). Though he does not like to be
involved in bomb mfr., he justifies himself that someone would have to mfr them. If
he does not, then someone else will. Of course, his family also needs a steady
income.
2. A chemical engineer, Mary, got into napalm mfg when she was promoted. She
does not like wars, but she feels that govt. knows better about international dangers.
She also knows that if she continues doing well in her job, she will again be
promoted to work on a commercial product.
3. Ron is a specialist in missile control and guidance. He knows that he was one of
the engineers instrumental in keeping any potential enemy in check through his
work. At least, there is enough mutual deterrence for a third world war.
4. Joanne is an electronics engineer working also on avionics for fighter planes that
are sold abroad. She does not want these planes to be sold to hostile countries.
Since she does not have any say on who should be their customers, she even alerts
occasionally her journalist friends with information about her work which she feels all
public should have.
Anyone who is involved in weapons development should be very clear as to his/her

motives for being in the industry.
31. What are the Problems of Defense Industry in brief?
1. Large military build-ups, massive projects all lead to unethical business practices
and the urgency of completion of the weapons projects does not allow proper
controlling and monitoring.
2. ‘Technology creep’ – development of cruise missiles alters diplomatic
arrangements
3. The impact of secrecy surrounding any defense activity
4. Overall effect of defense spending on economy
32. Explain the problems of defense industry with examples.
1. Large military build-ups: $2 billion cost overrun on the development of C5-A

cargo plane reported to the public by Ernest Fitzgerald due to poor operating
efficiencies in defense industry. He pointed out how large suppliers felt secure in
not complying to cost-cutting plans but small contractors were willing.
 25% firms hold 50%of all defense contracts and 8 firms conduct 45% of
defense research.
2. Technology creep: The arms are not only growing in size, it is also becoming
better. The development of a new missile or one that can target more accurately,
by one country, can upset or destabilize a diplomatic negotiation. Sometimes this
fad for modernization leads to undesirably consequences. The F15 fighter planes
were supposed to be fastest and most maneuverable of its kind but most were
not available for service due to repairs, defects and lack of spares. Engineers
should be beware of such pitfalls.
3. Impact of secrecy: Secrecy poses problems to engineers. Engineers should be
aware of the answers to the following questions:
Should discoveries of significance to military be informed to govt.? Can they
be shared with other researchers, in other countries? Should they be withheld
from the scientific and public community? Will the secrecy in weapons
development will also serve to hide corruption or their mistakes in defense
establishments? Can secrecy help the promotion of weapons systems without
criticism or interference from outsiders?
4. Effect on economy: Every dollar spent on defense produces less jobs than what
could be provided for by using the resource on other neglected sectors such as
education and road development. May be a changeover by training defense
engineers to use their designs, processes and techniques to bring about better,
competitive civilian products is what would be the most appropriate thing to do
now.
33. What are the difficulties in Decommissioning Weapons?
1. Even now, shells (duds or live) which landed about 90 years back during World
War I are found by farmers during ploughing. Special bomb disposal squads are
being kept busy with hundreds of calls.
2. There are, still more, unexploded and hidden bombs allover the world that fell
during World War II
3. Severed limbs and dead bodies are being discovered in lands filled with mines in
Cambodia and Vietnam in 1960s and70s.
4. Anti-personnel weapons are found in Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Mozambique,
Nicaragua and Somalia.
5. These weapons are easily spread by air but are very difficult and dangerous to
detect and remove.
6. About 100 million landmines remain still scattered in the above countries as per
estimates by U.S.State dept.
7. Landmines present a serious ethical dilemma to leaders who want to be ethical in
wars also
8. Design, mfr, deployment and eventually their disposal is a huge experiment.
9. Widespread ignorance on radiation amongst the public
10. Gas warfare experiments, Anthrax carriers, nuclear weapons all cause both
known and unknown problems
11. Engineers dealing with dangerous material should consider both the intended
use and also the unintended consequences and also their disposal.
34. Which studies are more useful to ‘engineer managers’ than even
engineering?
Richard L.Meehan, a civil engg graduate from MIT, was retained by General Electric
as a consultant to testify before Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the capability
of GE’s nuclear plant in California, U.S.A. to withstand earthquakes.
He found, while trying to understand the effect of earthquakes on nuclear plants, that
1. His basic study of physics is more useful in studying this area compared to
the more advanced studies in engg.
2. His understanding of risk analysis was based not only on probability theory
but also on value judgement about safety.
3. But more interesting was that understanding people was more important than
anything else.
4. Person oriented skills are as important to engineers as technical skills.
35. Why managements prefer to make engineers as managers than non-

engineers? / Why engineers find management positions attractive?
 Engineers undergo the most intensive technical training amongst professionals.

But still, many of them move to managerial positions early in their career for
which they received no training.
 Organisations find it easier to teach the business side to engineers than
teaching engineering to non-engineers.
 They also value the quantitative analysis, strong work-ethics, and confidence in
problem solving exhibited by engineers.
 Engineers also prefer the management attractive, since career in management
offers better recognition than technical track.
36. ‘Managers’ responsibility is to conduct business to increase profits’.

Discuss.
 Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said ‘The social responsibility of business is

to increase its profits……. The responsibility of managers is to conduct
business in accordance with their stockholders’ desires, which generally will
be to make as much money as possible while conforming to he basic rules of
society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom’
 The ethical custom refered by Friedman means only ‘refraining from fraud,
deception and corruption.
 But Martin and Schinzinger say that Friedman is not correct in saying that
managers’ ethics reduce to only responsibility to maximize profits for
stockholders.
 The primary responsibility of managers is to produce product or service while
maintaining respect for persons, including customers, employees and public.
 Ethically, personnel and safety comes first before profits.
 By definition, compared to charitable institutions, religions, organizations, etc
organizations and corporates operate only for profits.
 But the ultimate goal of managers should be to make valuable products that
are also profitable since profit making is one of the conditions to be in
business.
 Good business and sound ethics go together. Hence the moral roles of
managers and engineers are complementary and not opposed.
 Engineer managers have two major responsibilities – promoting and ethical
climate and resolving conflicts.
37. Explain how Ethical Climate is promoted in organizations through

examples.
There are highly ethical organizations, examples of some of which are given below:
1. Marilyn Hamilton, founded Quickie Designs in 1980, who was a teacher and
athlete who was paralyzed in hang-gliding accident. A highly mobile and versatile
wheel chair was designed weighing 26 pounds, half the weight of chairs that were
currently produced. The company grew up within a decade to $65 millions in sales. It
had a policy of customer sponsored sports events for young people in wheelchairs. It
is relatively small (500 strong) and exceptionally committed.
2. Martin Mariette Corpn began an ethics program in 1985 emphasizing basic value
like honesty and fairness and responsibility for environment and high product quality.
They drafted a code of conduct, conducted and ethics workshop for managers and
created effective procedures for employees to express their ethical concerns.
3. Texas Instruments (TI) is an example of an ethical large corporation emphasizing
on trust, respect for other persons, etc. TI appointed a full time Ethics Director, Carl
Skooglund. He surveyed to know the ethical concerns of employees and their
awareness. He conducted workshops on ethics, wrote brochures and was directly to
all employees through a confidential phone line. Even though they made it clear that
unprofessional conduct would not be tolerated, the focus was on supporting ethical
conduct than punishing wrong doers.
4. A large defense contractor started an ethics program that was not successful.
Higher management viewed the program as a success but the professional
employees considered it as a sham/farce for public relations and window dressing.
The primary
difficulty was the gap between the intentions of top management and the unchanged
behaviour of the Senior managers.
38. What steps can be taken to improve the ethical climate by managers?
1. Ethical values and their full complexity are widely acknowledged and
appreciated by managers and engineers. Neither profits nor promoting the
interests of the organization is neglected but the moral limits on profit-seeking
go beyond simply obeying the law and avoiding fraud.
2. The sincere use of ethical language is recognized as a legitimate part of
corporate dialogue. This is done either by formulating corporate code of ethics
or by including ethical responsibilities in job descriptions at all levels.
3. Top management must set a moral tone, in words, in policies and by personal
example. Everyone should be confident that management is serious about
ethics.
4. There must be procedures for conflict resolution. Managers should be trained
to resolve conflicts and on the other hand, a person should be exclusively
made to have confidential discussions about moral concerns.
39. What are the most common conflicts?
o Conflicts over schedules, depending mostly on support depts. but where

managers do not have any control.
o Conflicts over which is the most important dept or function at a given time
o Conflicts over personnel resources
o Conflicts over technical issues
o Conflicts over administrative procedures
o Personality conflicts
o Conflicts over costs
40. Can conflicts be managed by force or authority? How are different conflicts
resolved?
o ‘I am in-charge - see it my way or I will fire you’. This is generally perceived

as self-defeating.
o Conflict arrangement sometimes means tolerating and even inviting some
forms of conflict
o Manager’s task is to create climate in which conflicts are addressed
constructively
o Personality conflicts are ranked relatively low in intensity but they are most
difficult to resolve.
o They are generally woven with technical/communication problems
o Properly managed technical and ethical conflicts are usually fruitful and not
harmful. Differing views provide opportunity for improved creativity.
41. What are the 4 ways to resolve conflicts among persons suggested by
Harvard Negotiation Project?
1) People: Separate people from the problem.
Even though both the people and the problem are important, the personal
aspect of the conflict should be separated from the problem to deal with it
better. On personality clashes, the focus should be on behaviour and not on
people.
2) Interests: Focus on interests and not position\s
This principle applies most clearly to personnel matters and ethical views,
rather than technical disputes. Positions are stated views but these may not
really express their best interests.
3) Options: Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do.
Create a wide range of options especially in technical and ethical issues and
facilitate discussions.
4) Criteria: Insist that the result be based on some objective standard.
Beyond the goals of efficiency, quality and customer satisfaction, it is
important to develop a sense of fair process in how the goals are met.
42. What is the nature of work for Engineers as Consulting Engineers?

 Consulting engineers work in private practice.

 They earn by getting their fee for services rendered.
 They have greater freedom in decision making compared to salaried employees.
 But they also have a need to earn a living.
43. What are the major areas of work for engineer consultants?
1. Advertising
2. Competitive bidding
3. Contingency fees
4. Safety and client needs
44. ‘Advertising, once thought to be unprofessional has now been accepted by

law’ – Explain.
Before 1976, advertising was thought to be ‘unprofessional’, in U.S.A. The state

felt that work should be won through reputation as engineer and not through
advertisement.
But in 1976, Supreme Court ruled that
 Ban on professional advertising is an improper restraint
 It reduces public awareness of available professional services
 They keep prices higher than they might otherwise.
Now the focus has been shifted to restrain deceptive advertising which is done
through:
1. Outright lies
2. Half-truths
3. Exaggeration
4. Making false suggestions or implications
5. Obfuscation (confusion or not being clear) created by ambiguity, vagueness
6. Manipulation of the unconscious
45. When is advertising considered to be deceptive?
Example 1: A consulting firm played actually a very minor role in a well-known

project
Situation 1: Its brochure claims that it played a major role

Situation 2: It makes no claim but only shows the picture of the project
Situation 3: It shows the picture along with a footnote in fine print the true details
about its role in the project
Situation 4: If the same statement is printed in larger type and not as footnote.
Example 2: An ad shows an electronics device to convey that the item is routinely

produced and available for sale. But actually the ad shows only the prototype or
mock-up and the item is just being developed.
46. What are the norms to be followed by ethical consultants in advertising?

 Generally consumer products can be advertised suppressing the negative
aspects and even some exaggeration is allowed.
 But advertisement of professional services like engineering services is governed
by strict norms.
NSPE forbids the following:
“the use of statements containing a material misrepresentation of fact or omitting a

material fact necessary to keep the statement from being misleading; statements
intended or likely to create an unjustified expectation; statements containing
prediction of future success; statements containing an opinion as to the quality of the
showmanship including the use of slogans, jingles or sensational language format.”
 Some degree of solicitation may be useful in encouraging healthy competition

 Or will it open the door to people who are not honest, who criticize unfairly or who
exaggerate the merits of their services?
 In any case, restrictions on misleading advertisement are a must.
47. Why was Competitive Bidding prohibited earlier and then why was it
approved by courts?
 Competitive bidding was prohibited for quite sometime due to the following
reasons:
 Consulting jobs, unlike industrial and construction work, are not suitable for
precise cost estimates and hence precise bids.
 Here competitive bidding, would encourage cutting safety and quality, in case
of lower bids and padding/over designing in the case of higher bids.
 Later, Competitive bidding was approved by Courts of law on the reasoning
that free trade is restrained in an unfair manner.
48. When consulting engineers reject competitive bidding, what can be the
basis of their selection?
Consulting engineers, in the absence of competitive bidding can be selected only

based on their reputation and proven qualification. But younger, competent
engineers may be disadvantaged by this method.
49. What is your understanding of Contingency Fees?
Contingency fee is dependent on some specific conditions beyond normal,

satisfactory performance in work.
 A client may hire a consultant engineer to find methods of cost saving on an
ongoing project to save a minimum of 10%. If consultant saves 10%, he will get
his fee; otherwise no fee will be paid. The fee can be either an agreed amount or
a %age of savings.
 When the fee is a %age of saving, it becomes ‘contingency fee’. In many cases,
consultants tend to be biased and in order to gain the fee, they may specify
inferior design or process to cut costs.
50. How does NSPE address the issue of ‘Contingency Fee’?
NSPE has addressed this issue as follows:

“An engineer shall not request, propose, or accept a professional commission on a
contingent basis under circumstances in which his professional judgement may be
compromised, or when a contingency provision is used as a device for promoting or
securing a professional commission.”
51. When does the ‘contingency fee’ become permissible?
To decide whether ‘contingency fee’ practice may be allowed or not, the potential
gains should be weighed against the potential losses. Hence, this again calls for
contextual reasoning based on ethical theories, which provide a framework for
assessing morally relevant issues of the problem.
52. How ‘Safety and client needs’ should be addressed by consulting

engineers?
 Consulting engineers have greater freedom with wider areas of responsible

decision making compared to salaried engineers.
 This creates special difficulties for consulting engineers.
 In ‘design-only’ projects, consultants do not have any role in the construction
or implementation as per the design specs.
 Ideally, only the designer would really know the areas of difficulty in
execution.
 Even when changes in design are required during execution, the
consultant may not be around to effect the changes
 Client may not have capable people for inspection of the work based
on the consultant’s design.
 Does the consultant have a moral responsibility to follow through the
design in execution
 In any case, job safety is one prime responsibility of the consultant
engineer
53. What are the reasons that cause ‘Disputes’? Who is the major loser in any
dispute?
 Large projects involve owners, consultants and contractors and many participants
at various levels in these three organizations.
 Overlapping responsibilities, fragmented control, delays and inability to resolve
disputes are some of the problems encountered during these projects.
 Resolving disputes becomes especially difficult when projects last for several
years and connected personnel also change during this period.
 Owners have the most to lose in such situations.
 Hence they try to shift the risks to others.
 Consulting engineers are generally tied to the contract provisions and they do not
try any innovative ideas (do not want to add risks)
 All this have led to considerable litigation and any litigation is time consuming and
costly.
54. What are the steps to be taken resolve disputes?
1. Define how risks are to be apportioned and payment of fees to be made

2. Make contractual provisions for dispute solving vehicles to avoid legal battles in
lines of mediation – arbitration
3. Mediator attempts to resolve first and if it fails, the arbitrators’ decision should
be final.
4. National Joint Board for settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes will be called to
provide a leaking board and appeals board.
5. The Consulting Engineer, from the “social experimentation” nature of
engineering, has the obligation to include such clauses in contracts and should
make sure that these clauses are adhered to by all.
55. What is the work done by Engineers as Experts?
Engineers, in their position as experts, explain the happenings of the past in terms of
Causes of accidents, malfunctions of equipment and other technological events.
They also help in events of the future like, public planning, potential of patents and
policy making (in technology)
56. How should Expert Engineers function?
They should function as impartial seekers of facts & Communicators of truth but not
as hired guns i.e. advocates for lawyers, officials, etc
57. What are the types of cases, expert witnesses are called upon to testify in
court & what are the stakes?
57.1. Types Of Cases

I. Airplane crash
II. Defective products
III. Personal injury
IV. Property damage
V. Traffic accident
57.2. Stakes
I. Legal liabilities
II. Economic interests
III. Reputations of corpns. and professionals
58. What are the Expert engineers’ responsibilities towards their hirers?
They should
 Present their qualifications to the client
 Investigate thoroughly the cases entrusted to them.
 Testify in court
59. How should the expert witness exhibit one’s ‘confidentiality

responsibility’?
The expert witnesses must
 Not divulge their investigations unless called upon to do so by the court
 Not volunteer evidence favourable to the opponent
 Answer questions truthfully when opposing attorney puts forth pertinent
questions
But he should not just be the client’s mouthpiece.
60. What are the aims of a legal system?

Aims Of A Legal System is
To administer a complex system of legal rights that define legal justice achieved
through adversarial relationships, with rules about admissible forms of evidence
and permissible forms of testimony
61. What is the role of an expert in a court system consistent with Professional
standards (codes of ethics)?
Role of an Expert in a Court System
 Experts must earnestly try to be impartial in identifying and interpreting
complicated data thrown up by the complexity of modern science and
technology to help the courts
 Ideally, if courts pay the expert witness, the expert will become totally
unbiased.
 But it is a very costly issue
 So parties to the dispute are called upon to pay and hire them on both sides
and also allow them to be cross examined by both sides
62. What is the difference between Eye witness and Expert witness?
 Eye Witness
Is permitted to testify on observed and to some extent perceived facts.
 Expert Witness
 Is permitted to testify on facts, perceptions and interpretations of facts in the
area of their expertise
 To comment on opponent’s expert witness’ view
 To report on applicable professional standards
63. What are the types of abuses of Engineers as Expert witnesses?
Expert witnesses are abused in the following ways:

 Hired Guns
 Financial Bias
 Ego Bias
 Sympathy Bias
64. Write short notes on: a) Hired Guns, b) Financial Bias, c) Ego Bias and
d) Sympathy Bias
a) Hired Gun
An unscrupulous (unprincipled, crooked, immoral) engineer
 Makes his living by helping lawyers to portray facts in favour of their clients
 Never tries to be objective
 Violates standards of honesty and care in conducting investigations
 Overall a shame on engineering community
b) Financial Bias
 The expert witness is biased to the party which pays more money
 The bias increases substantially when payments are agreed as Contingency
Fee to be paid only in case the hirer wins the case
 Full time forensic engineers, being dependent on lawyers for their living, try to
create a reputation of a winning engineer.
c) Ego Bias
 Competitive attitudes, being on one side of the disputing parties makes an
expert, egoistic and makes him influence judgments
 They start identifying themselves with their side of the dispute
d) Sympathy Bias
 The plight of the victims and their sufferings can invoke sympathy from the
expert witness
 This upsets impartial investigation of facts
65. What is needed of the Expert Engineers?
 Engineer Experts should maintain their integrity in the face of all the above
biases
 Courts also must rely on balance provided by expert witnesses on both sides
of the case and provide opportunities to lawyers to remove the bias by cross-
examination
66. What is the work of Engineers as Advisers?
Engineers act as Advisers in Planning and Policy-Making like Economists,

sociologists, urban planners, etc.
In Policy-Making they advise about the Cost benefit analysis of alternate solutions for
transport, housing, energy, defense, etc.
In Planning they check the feasibility, risks and benefits of the specific technological
projects which affect public in local communities
67. What are the Stakes for the engineer advisers?
Their stakes are:

1. Opposing political views
2. Social perspectives
3. Economic interests
4. And their individual values like,
 Honesty
 Public trust
 Respect for common good
68. How should Engineer advisers act?
Advisers are to:

 Chart all realistic options
 Carefully assess each under different assumptions about future contingencies
 Act favourable to the client by basing their studies on particular assumptions
about future contingencies
69. What are the factors that influence Advisers?
Advisers are influenced by:

 Large amounts of money involved
 Direct and overt (obvious and unconcealed) pressure applied by pro or anti-
people involved in that project
 Hope of additional work in future
 Their wish to get the respect of clients
70. What are the normative models of Advisers? Briefly explain each of them.
Normative Models of Advisers
Three types:
 Hired Guns
 Value Neutral Analysts
 Value Guided Analysts
Hired Guns – This is the most undesirable role that can be played by the adviser.
 Here the obligation to clients only is paramount and other values are not
bothered about.
 Studies are made just conforming to the client’s wish.
 Adviser highlights only the favourable facts to the customer.
 All the unfavourable facts are very much downplayed.
Value Neutral Analysts

 Completely impartial engineers.
 They identify all options and analyze factual issues of each option.
 Cost-benefit analysis are made based on value criteria specified and made public
Value Guided Analysts

 Responsibility to public paramount
 Maintain honesty about technical facts and values
 They can adopt partisan views for the good based on their professional judgment
71. What are the virtues of independent expert advisers?

Virtues of Independent Experts
 Honesty- avoiding deception, being candid in stating relevant facts and
truthful in interpreting facts
 Competence- being well trained, adequately experienced in the relevant field
and having relevant skills
 Diligence- carrying out tasks carefully and promptly
 Loyalty- avoiding conflicts of interest, maintaining confidentiality and concern
for the interests of the client
72. List the roles of engineers as ‘leaders’.
Engineers perform as Leaders in the roles of

1. Managers
2. Business Entrepreneurs
3. Consultants
4. Academics and
5. Govt officials.
73. What is leadership and who are moral leaders?
Leadership is ‘Successfully moving a group towards its common goal’.

But Moral leaders are those who move the group successfully towards goals which
do public good and not evils i.e. the goals must be ‘morally valuable’. Hence Moral
Leaders can be defined as,
‘The individuals, who direct, motivate, organize, creatively manage and move groups
toward morally valuable goals’
74. ‘Technologists were best qualified to govern because of their technical

expertise’. Discuss in detail.
Mussolini and Hitler were great leaders, but not ‘Moral Leaders’, since their goals
were not morally valuable.
‘An Utopian society shall be governed by a philosopher-king whose moral wisdom
best qualifies him to rule’ – Plato
‘Technologists were best qualified to govern because of their technical expertise, as
well as their logical, practical and unprejudiced minds’– Frederick Taylor
 But no single profession has the only right to moral governance of society.
 Leadership is also moving away from any narrow professional interests.
 Moral leadership is not ‘dominance by elite’, but stimulating groups toward
morally desirable ends.
75. Explain Moral Creativity.
Moral creativity is
 Identifying most important values in particular situations
 Focusing on them through effective communication within the group.
 Deep commitments grounded in integrity to implement them.
Creativity consists in identifying new possibilities for applying, extending and putting
into practice, rather than inventing values.
76. How participation in Professional Societies will improve moral leadership?
Professional Societies
o Promote continuing education for their members
o Unify the profession, speak and act on behalf of them
o Are a forum for communicating, organizing and mobilizing change within, a
change which has a moral dimension.
o Cannot take any pro-employee or pro-management stand since they have
members in management, supervision and non-management.
o But they can play a role in resolving moral issues
o A moral responsibility as well as moral creativity is shared.
77. How can individuals make a difference in leadership of Professional

Societies?
o Stephen H. Unger, as an individual was mainly responsible for persuading

IEEE to focus on supporting responsible engineers than punishing wrong
doers. He was instrumental in IEEE presenting awards to the three BART
engineers.
o In 1988, NSPE created National Institute of Engineering Ethics with a mission
to promote ethics within engineering. The focus was on education rather than
propaganda.
o But effective professional activity, requires a substantial trust from clients and
the public.
o Building and sustaining that trust is an important responsibility shared by all
engineers.
o In this area also Moral Leadership within professional societies is important.
78. Write short note on ‘Leadership in Communities’.
Leadership responsibilities of engineers as citizens go beyond those of non-

engineers. They should provide greater leadership in social debates about
 Industrial Pollution
 Automobile Safety
 Disposal of Nuclear Waste, etc.
79. What are the different views on ‘leadership in communities’?
 One view is that no one is strictly obligated to participate in public decision

making. It may be a moral ideal for citizens.
 An opposite view is that all are obligated to devote sometime and energy in public
policy making.
 Non-engineers should at least stay informed about public issues and
professionals have obligations as experts in their areas.
 Hence the need for identifying and expanding areas of possible good.
80. What are the arguments for and against Voluntary Service by engineering
professionals?
 Should engineering professionals offer engineering services to the needy,

without charging fee or at reduced fee?
 Voluntarism of this kind is already encouraged in Medicine, Law and
Education.
 But ABET code states “Engineers shall not undertake or agree to perform any
engineering service on a free basis” and other codes also insist that engineers
are obligated to adequate compensations (which means full fee)
 Engineers find it difficult to donate their services individually compared to
doctors and lawyers since their output is on a shared basis
 But, as suggested by Robert Baum, engineers can volunteer their services in
the following areas, in groups, either free or at cheaper than normal fee.
 Environmental impact studies that is harmful to a community
 Health issues of polluted water and soil
 Minimal needs of elderly and minorities like running water, sewage
systems, electric power and inexpensive transportation.
81. What can engineers and engineering society do to public in terms of

‘voluntary service’?
Engineers can
 Urge Govt. to expand services of the Army Corps of Engineers
 Encourage students to focus their projects on service for disadvantaged
groups
 Encouraging corporations to cut their fee by 5 to 10% for charitable purposes.
Morally concerned Engineering Profession-

o Should recognize the rights of corporations and engineers to voluntarily
engage in philanthropic engineering services.
o Professional societies should endorse voluntary exercise as a desirable ideal.
Many engineers and some societies already are engaged in

o Tutoring disadvantaged students
o Advice local governments on their engineering problem.
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Professional Ethics And Human Values

Presentation · May 2006

Biomedical Disorders and Social - Behavioural Changes in human View project

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Dr. Syed Mohamed Ibrahim / VT836(PROFESSOR)

UNIT I – HUMAN VALUES

(Modified from LIVING WITH HONOUR by SHIV KHERA)

Do we find ourselves in similar situations as the carpenter?

How do we regain our focus as individuals and organizations?

This is the challenge for the employee and the employer.

Ethics are fundamental standards of conduct by which we work as a professional.

 Values are individual in nature.

“Never change your core values.”

 Morals are guiding principles that every citizen should hold.

PERSONAL ETHICS - everyday examples

RELIGION AND ETHICS

• “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

MORALITY AND ETHICS

There are two aspects to ethics:

An ALGEBRA course will teach you ALGEBRA.

But, Will an ETHICS course teach you to be ETHICAL?

UNIT II - ENGINEERING ETHICS

– What does Adm. Rickover mean by this?

• Engineers have an ethical and social responsibility to themselves, their clients

ENGINEERING ETHICS is:

• the study of moral issues and decisions confronting individuals and

• Stimulating the moral imagination

QUESTIONABLE ENGINEERING PRACTICES

•Trimming – “smoothing of irregularities to make data look extremely accurate

SENSES OF EXPRESSION OF ENGG. ETHICS

 Ethics is an activity and area of inquiry. It is the activity of understanding

VARIETIES or APPROACHES OF MORAL ISSUES

MICRO-ETHICS emphasizes typically everyday problems that can take on

MORAL PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING

Some of the questions are:

These questions should lead to clarifications on concepts, principles and issues in

A) What is ‘SAFETY’ and how is it related to ‘RISK’

3. FACTUAL (DESCRIPTIVE) INQUIRIES

Why study ENGINEERING ETHICS

ENGINEERING ETHICS is a means to increase the ability of concerned engineers,

There are three types of complexities.

 CONFLICTING REASONS: Even when it is perfectly clear as to which moral

 DISAGREEMENT: Individuals and groups may disagree how to interpret,

Steps in confronting MORAL DILEMMAS:

A person becomes morally autonomous by improving various practical skills listed

i) Proficiency is recognizing moral problems and issues in engineering.

STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Differences between the TWO THEORIES

At a ‘postconventional’ level, one may argue that stealing is wrong because is

CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

PROFESSIONS AND PROFESSIONALISM

• Has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from an accredited school

Differing views on Professionals

“Professionals have to meet the expectations of clients and employers. Professional

“Engineers are professionals when they 1) attain standards of achievement in

MOTIVES FOR PROFESSIONALISM

MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS

1. SAVIOR: The representative engineer is a savior who will redeem