Derivative ethical responsibilities

Suppose they did know of another such approach, but set it aside and recommended what they knew was the more-pollution-producing new ECC. Then, under FEREl, they violated the derivative ethical responsibility not to act such that their solution foreseeably produced more net harm than needed to solve the stalling problem. 

The same would be the case if they did not know of any such approach but should have known of one. In this situation, the general ethical responsibility to not cause harm or an unreasonable risk of harm (FEREl) implies a derivative ethical responsibility to do due dihgence before acting, here by checking to... 

In this case, under FEREl the engineers had a derivative ethical responsibility to situate their design work in a broad socio-technical-environmental system context, for example, the driver + engine + HAC -l- sensor + ECC + fuel injectors H- emissions control equipment -I- tailpipe -l- natural environment -I- humans living in that natural environment system. That was the broad system context within which the new chips were going to function and within which they could (and did) have noteworthy harmful effects. 

If Diane genuinely believes that the weak protecfion / less secure system that the client opted for will in fact put the client s employees at an unreasonable risk of harm, then she has a derivative ethical responsibility, under FEREl, not to accommodate her client s money-saving system-design choice. 

What must be the case about the process of transferring a technological product or system from one country to another for that transfer process to qualify as an ethically responsible one Among other things, the process must be one in which the engineers and managers involved fulfill the following FERE-derived ethical responsibilities ... 

Boisjoly s memo failed to persuade MTI management to stop the launches of the space shuttle until the joints were fixed, which is what he believed should have happened. But through his various actions before the launch, Boisjoly arguably fulfilled his derivative ethical responsibilities... 

For more detailed discussion of the conditions under which an engineer has a derivative ethical responsibility to go public or blow the whistle, see Case 11. 

But for Brown, the responsibility to work to the best of his ability to serve the legitimate interests of the client went a step beyond optimization and option disclosure. It encompassed a third derivative ethical responsibility problem redefinition. Instead of just make us a carbon-fiber bicycle, Brown helped Velo CEO Clark see that the company s goal was [to make the] best possible product, given all possible perspectives of the problem. This in turn involved helping the client see that the real problem was to build a lightweight bicycle frame that was equivalent in strength to their existing frame, whether made out of a fiber-reinforced composite material or out of a less exotic metallic material. ... 

Given the FEREs, the properties of nanomaterials, the pressures under which many nanotech researchers work, and the importance of a research lab having a strong safety culture to deter prohibited shortcuttmg, several derivative ethical responsibilities follow ... 

The structural engineer who is the principal of the firm has a derivative ethical responsibility to monitor and supervise her/his subordinate employees in a substantive way. The head structural engineer must not turn over responsibility for a particular project to a subordinate structural engineer and then cease to monitor, supervise, and check her/his work. In particular, the head structural engineer cannot ethically allow her/his personal seal of approval to be used by the subordinate without checking on the accuracy and reliability of the work that s/he has done on a project. 

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