National Society of Professional Engineers NSPE

Reprinted by permission of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) www.nspe.org. 

See, for example, the codes of ethics of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Other engineering society codes espouse essentially the same idea in different words. 

Professional Conduct and Ethics The moral aspect of safety and health often is finked to professional ethics. Many codes of professional conduct and ethics place high value on human fife. For example, the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) places protection of people at the top of its Code of Professional Conduct ... 

Member societies reached out to students to dispel notions that they were hostile to the concerns of youth. The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), for instance, dedicated the October 1968 issue of its journal to student authors. Princeton senior William W. Hill advocated that engineers serve the urban poor. We are not a group of subversive socialists who see as the answer to the ills of society the overthrowing of big business and the capitalist system, he wrote, Quite the opposite is true. ... 

The Code [as well as the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code] is emphatic about the engineer s first and primary duty when Canon 1 states. 

National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). (2007). Code of Ethics for Engineers, http // www.nspe.org/Ethics/CodeofEthics/index.html. Accessed 14 Jan 2013. 

The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) also publishes a code of ethics, which is very similar to the ASCE Code. NSPE Eundamental Canon 1 states the engineers shall Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public. The first Rule of Practice under that Canon requires that If engineers judgment is overruled under circumstances that endanger life or property, they shall notify their employer or client and such other authority as may be appropriate (NSPE 2013). The NSPE addition of such other authority as may be appropriate seems like a good addition. 

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