Case Studies in Engineering Ethics

Engineers shall accept personal responsibility for their professional activities, provided, however, that Engineers may seek indemnification for services arising out of their practice for other than gross negligence, where the Engineer s interests cannot otherwise be protected. 

Engineers shall give credit for engineering work to those to whom credit is due, and will recognize the proprietary interests of others. 

Many situations that engineers deal with are complex, and it is not always obvious that an act is ethical or unethical. This case, however, involves a clear-cut and unequivocable application of Canons 5 and 6 of the Code of Ethics. Had the engineer made the political contribution in order to secure engineering work, it would have clearly been unethical and almost certainly illegal. 

Unfortunately, the events described here are more common than professional engineers would like to believe. Professional societies should adopt a militant attitude toward kickbacks and bribes to public officials and publicly condemn any known instances of such practices. No reputable engineer should accept work under such conditions. 

A small steel fabricator having engineering graduates on its payroll prepared the plans for the roof truss of a local building. The city inspector refused to 

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Micro-social. The only previous case study in this book that dealt with engineering research - Case 03, the Schon case - focused on research misconduct and several ethically problematic research practices linked with collaborative research. Here I shall examine ethical responsibilities related to several different ethically questionable research practices, only the first of which is specific to nanotechnology. 

Collins J, Mathieson, C. Case studies in economics and ethics in an early biomedical engineering class. Proceedings, ASEE Annual Conference, Montreal, June 2002. 

Subsequent chapters identify the kinds of ethical issues raised in the cases, the kinds of factors that helped engender them, and noteworthy ideas and lessons extractable from the case studies. I then survey some resources and options that might be useful to those who care about practicing engineering in an ethically responsible way. 

SIXTEEN CASE STUDIES OF ETHICAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING... 

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