SIXTEEN CASE STUDIES OF ETHICAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING

SIXTEEN CASE STUDIES OF ETHICAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING 

The Ethically Responsible Engineer Concepts and Cases for Students and Professionals, First Edition. Robert McGinn. 2015 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

Each case discussion begins with presentation of the basic facts of the situation and, where needed, critical historical background. Next, one or more ethical issue(s) raised in the case is identified. Analysis of the identified issue(s) then follows, with attention to, among other things, how the FEREs apply to the specific situation under scrutiny. Each case study concludes with discussion of one or more lesson(s) that the case suggests, often ones whose appUcabiUty extends far beyond the case at hand. 

Before turning to the cases, a critical intellectual issue merits brief discussion. The ethical judgments about engineering conduct made in a number of case discussions take as their point of departure the fact that the conduct of some engineer(s) contributed to bringing about or creating a risk of harm for affected parties. For this reason, it is important to clarify the pivotal (and notoriously sUppery) concept of cause, as in x caused y.  

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