318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

Society, Business and Engineering: Natural Conflicts
Societal Need Public Safety and Human Welfare
ENGINEERING
Business Need Economic Reward to Ownership, Stockholders

In many cases the economic pressure within a business or industry has driven the
decision making by engineers or by their management system to compromise
product safety either directly in the product design and/or by short cutting the
product development cycle and not doing adequate safety testing. Many cases of
such actions within various industries have not only resulted in public harm but
also in governmental legislation to regulate the industry and insure that product
designs comply with minimum safety standards. -JK

318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

Definition of Ethics

Ethics (from the Ancient Greek "ethikos", meaning "arising from habit"), a major
branch of philosophy, is the study of value or quality. It covers the analysis and
employment of concepts such as right, wrong, good, evil, and responsibility. It is
divided into three primary areas: meta-ethics (the study of what ethicality is),
normative ethics (the study of what ethical truths there are and how they are
known), and applied ethics (the study of the use of ethical knowledge).

Ethics are Part of Philosophy Studies

Engineering is concerned with Applied Ethics

318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

The Founding 4 Engineering Professional Organizations
As engineering rose as a distinct profession during the nineteenth century, engineers saw themselves as either
independent specialists or technical employees of large enterprises. In the United States growing professionalism gave
rise to the development of four founding engineering societies:

The American Institute of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (1851)

The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) (1884)

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) (1880)
The American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) (1871)

318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

The Societal Need for Ethics and Minimum Standards in Engineering
As the nineteenth century drew to a close and the twentieth century began, there were a series of significant structural failures,
including some spectacular bridge failures,

Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (1876)

Tay Bridge Disaster (1879)
Quebec Bridge collapse (1907)

Of 159 passengers and crew onboard that night, 64 people were injured
and 92 were killed or died later from injuries sustained in the crash (48 of
the fatalities were unrecognizable or consumed in the flames.) making this
one of the worst railroad disasters in American history. Experts attributed
the accident to fatigue of the cast iron lug pieces which were used to
anchor the wrought iron bars of the truss together. Many were poorly
made, and needed shims of metal inserted to hold the bars in place. The
disaster helped focus efforts to draw up standards for bridges, adequate
testing and inspection.

These had a profound effect on engineers and forced the profession to confront shortcomings in technical and construction practice,
as well as ethical standards.

As engineering rose as a distinct profession during the nineteenth century, engineers saw themselves as either
independent specialists or technical employees of large enterprises. In the United States growing professionalism
gave rise to the development of four founding engineering societies and ethical codes for their memberships.

AIEE, forerunner to the modern day IEEE, was 1st to adopt such a code in 1912
ASCE and ASME did so in 1914
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318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

Public Safety, Health and Welfare are the cornerstones on these code of ethics
National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE): "Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties,
shall: Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public."

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): "Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and
welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties."

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): "We, the members of the IEEE, do hereby commit
ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree: 1. to accept responsibility in making decisions
consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the
public or the environment;"

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE): "To achieve these goals, members shall hold paramount the
safety, health and welfare of the public and protect the environment in performance of their professional duties."

318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

IEEE Code of Ethics
We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a
personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional
conduct and agree:

1. to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose
promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;
2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;
3. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;
4. to reject bribery in all its forms;
5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences;
6. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training
or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;
7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the
contributions of others;
8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;
9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;
10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.
Approved by the IEEE Board of Directors
February 2006

318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

Common Ethical Issues
Quality and Safety
Adequate Verification and Validation
Ensuring legal compliance
Conflict of interest
Bribery and kickbacks
Treatment of confidential or proprietary information
Consideration of the employers assets
Relationships; clients, consultants, competitors, and contractors
Gifts, meals, services, and entertainment
Environmental Damage
Outside employment/business activities
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318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

Historic Society Disasters & Eng Ethics Issues
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster (2003)
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986)
Chernobyl disaster (1986)
Bhopal India Union Carbide disaster (1984)
Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse (1981)
Three Mile Island accident (1979)
Citigroup Center (1978)
Ford Pinto safety problems (1970s)
Minamata disease (1908-1973)
Chevrolet Corvair safety problems (1960s)
Boston molasses disaster (1919)
Quebec Bridge collapse (1907)
Johnstown Flood (1889)
Tay Bridge Disaster (1879)
Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (1876)
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318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

Ford Pinto
Fuel tank location and mechanical attachment
found to be factors in several accident-explosion
injuries and deaths
Design trade-off decision made early on to eliminate safety bladder
inside gas tanks
Evidence of FORD cost-benefit study of recall-fix vs estimated law
suit costs was made public
Eventual legal cost to FORD was > $125MM
Reputation loss for FORD with public, eventual product recall
Actual overall injury and fatality rate was no more than other cars of
this class during the 1970s
Contributing factor in US automaker loss of dominance to Japanese

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318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

Space Shuttle Challenger
Disintegrated 73 seconds into flight

Loss of life of all 7 crew members

Failure of Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) O-Ring
Violation of O-Ring Material Thermal Operating Range was an issue
raised by engineers at SRB Mfg Morton-Thiakol (MT) years before
disaster
NASA as well as MT management aware of issue but repeatedly
OKd shuttle launch outside MT Eng recommended operating range
No process for launch abort when engineering concerns over-ridden
by management decision
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318-595 Ethics & Societal Issues

General Guidance to Ethical Engineering

Priority is Key
Importance

1. Safety: Public Safety, Health & Welfare (including you)

2. Quality: Quality and Reliability of Product

3. Cost: Cost and Productivity of Product & Development
4. Delivery: Delivery and Production Capacity of Product
Businesses want ALL 4 of these!
Difficulty arises when the priority order is changed

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