Ethics cases to ponder...
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Read:
Individual Cases of Scientific Misconduct: link
To see how easy it is to fabricate and falsify results.
Why would someone want to falsify results?
one example...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Bio-Test_Laboratories
List of accidents and disasters by death toll - link
Infamous fatigue failures - link
List of industrial disasters - link
Lists of nuclear & radioactive incidents - link
List of oil spills - link
List of structural failures and collapses - link
Lists of rail accidents - link
List of commercial aircraft accidents- link
List of spaceflight accidents - link
List of product recalls - linkList of recalled prodects - https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/
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Engineering Ethics - branch of ethics
non-ethical concerns vs. ethical concerns:
Which of the following concerns are ethical concerns?
- individual choices about food and clothing?
- individual political and religious viewpoints?
- type of material to use in a construction project?
- what quality paint should be used in a construction project?
- Legal issues around a project?
What is more important?
- Ethical standards
- Legal standards
- Company standards
- Economic, social, cultural standards
Three varieties of meta-ethical theories:
1. Ethical skepticism – believes ethics are subjective personal opinions – believes there are no reliable ethical standards.
2. Ethical relativism – ethical standards are relative to society or culture.
3. Ethical absolutism – same ethical standards apply to everyone.
Which ethical variety do engineering ethics fall under? Why?
Meta-ethics - What is it to be morally right or wrong?
Moral realists - believe moral facts are objective and absolute
Anti-realists - believe morality is invented and not absolute
The ethical issues that engineers deal with such as:
- Is this building safe?
- Is this paint carcinogenic?
- Are the emissions from this car correctly measured and reported?
- Is this water/food/air/soap/ safe for human use?
are determined by the laws of nature, not personal opinion or invention, and are therefore absolute in nature. Engineers are therefore expected to embrace ethical absolutism.
link
Normative Ethics – appropriate standards of morality, ie, always tell the truth, keep your promises, protect innocent life, etc.
3 types of Normative ethics:
1. Virtue of the "agent" performing an act
moral character of individuals:
courage, generosity, compassion, honesty etc.
2. Deontology - concerns the act being performed. Is the action inherently good or bad?
3. Utilitarian/Consequentialist ethics – concerns the consequences. Actions should promote the general welfare or benefit all people – the greatest good for the greatest number
Consequences...
http://ccat.sog.unc.edu/node/1079
How Ethical Are You? Put Your Decision-Making Skills to the Test
https://news.utexas.edu/2014/09/22/how-ethical-are-you-test-your-decision-making-skills
Conflicts in Ethics:
Always tell the truth?
- How do I look?
- How does this taste?
- Did you enjoy the concert?
Is it moral to hurt someone's feelings? is it moral to lie?
Intentions vs. actions
- Drunk driver did not "intend" to kill anyone
- Scout leader did not intend to strand campers in a storm
- The Aswan dam did not intend to increase the salinity of the Nile by 10% and kill all the fish...
Engineering – obligated to avoid getting into situations which are dangerous
"Sincere intentions or wishful thinking have no special ethical value, nor are they legitimate excuses for ethically bad behavior."
Do or do not – there is no try.
Engineers are expected to act with integrity and be trustworthy at all times both on and off the job.
Consider the economic recession -
main cause: widespread dishonest and unethical conduct within the U.S. housing and financial markets.
Reaction: enact more & stronger regulations.
Are regulations the answer?
Perhaps rules & regulations will dissuade some from unprincipled conduct, but others will simply get more creative in their circumvention.
There can never be enough rules to anticipate and cover every situation, and even if there were, enforcement would be impossibly expensive and burdensome. This approach leads to diminished freedom for everyone.
If regulations do not 100% work...
What is needed to uphold and maintain ethical practices?
Thoughts on the below statements?
"In the end, it is only an internal moral compass in each individual that can effectively maintain ethical practices. Individuals must be persuaded that service and sacrifice for the well-being and happiness of others are far superior to making one’s own comfort and possessions the highest priority.
A lack of internal control by individuals breeds attempted external control by governments or anarchy. To maintain a safe society, ethical discipline must be a matter of self-discipline based on moral standards to choose the right for no other reason than because it is right, even when it is hard." -
.
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral .. people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
Expecting everyone to be ethical on their own:
is this being too optimistic? Unrealistic?
Valued characteristics:
honest,
reliable,
trustworthy,
hardworking,
has integrity
upholds a high moral standard both on and off the job.
All of us experience temptations, ethics requires discipline. To be a respected leader, is to first prove that you can govern yourself.
IOW- don't be a sleazy, unethical, untrustworthy, scumbag!
Code of Hammurabi - link
Babylon. 2200 BCE
A. If a builder builds a house for a man and do not make its construction firm and the house which he has built collapse and cause the death of the owner of the house - that builder shall be put to death.
B. If it cause the death of the son of the owner of the house - they shall put to death a son of that builder.
C. If it destroys property, he shall restore whatever it destroyed, and because he did not make the house which he built firm and it collapsed, he shall rebuild the house which collapsed at his own expense.
D. If a builder build a house for a man and do not make its construction meet the requirements and a wall falls in, that builder shall strengthen the wall at his own expense.
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2001 Breakdown of NSF (National Science Foundation) misconduct cases:
- 61% Plagiarism (copying anther's work)
- 17% Fabrication (made-up results)
- 11% Falsification(manipulated results)
- 11% Other
2002 - Journal editors start testing authenticity of photos. The Journal of Cell Biology - found 25 percent of all accepted manuscripts (sense 2002) had one or more illustrations that were manipulated (Photoshopped) in ways that violate the journal's guidelines - link.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2964337/
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http://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/plag/5240451.0001.001/--cases-of-plagiarism-handled?rgn=main;view=fulltext
https://ssl.uh.edu/research/compliance/res-misconduct/index.php
....Success is the mother of failure,
failure is the father of success...
The Engineering Cycle:
- success leads to overconfidence,
- overconfidence leads to failure,
- failure leads to increased understanding,
- increased understanding leads to greater success.
We all make mistakes...
Ideal case: work environment is open to hearing concerns, and forgiving and thankful to those who admit & report problem areas.
Reality: People are punished for making mistakes, so problem areas are covered up.
Question: How can you handle (and or change) a competitive work environment that:
- punishes mistakes?
- values profit over safety?
- produces a product that is not entirely ethical?
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The Engineers' Creed
As a Professional Engineer, I dedicate my professional knowledge and skill to the advancement and betterment of human welfare.
I pledge:
- To give the utmost of performance;
- To participate in none but honest enterprise;
- To live and work according to the laws of man and the highest standards of professional conduct;
- To place service before profit, the honor and standing of the profession before personal advantage, and the public welfare above all other considerations.
Adopted by National Society of Professional Engineers, June 1954
15.1
A person’s behavior is always ethical when one:
A) Does what is best for oneself
B) Has good intentions, no matter how things turn out.
C) Does what is best for everyone.
D) Does what is most profitable
15.2
Which of the following ensure that behavior is ethical?
i. following the law.
Which of the following ensure that behavior is ethical?
i. following the law.
ii. acting in the best interest of a society .
iii. following non-legal standards for socially approved conduct .
15.3
Engineers should follow their professional code of ethics because:
a) it helps them avoid legal problems such as getting sued
Engineers should follow their professional code of ethics because:
a) it helps them avoid legal problems such as getting sued
b) it provides a clear definition of what the public has a right to expect from responsible engineers…
c) it raises the image of the profession and hence gets engineers more pay
c) it raises the image of the profession and hence gets engineers more pay
d) the public will trust engineers more once they know engineers have a code of ethics
15.5
The first and foremost obligation of a registered PE is to:
a) the public welfare.
The first and foremost obligation of a registered PE is to:
a) the public welfare.
b) their employer
c) the government
d) the engineering profession
to Society,
to employer and clients, and
to other engineers:
- only approve designs that safeguard life, health, welfare, and property of the public
- if an engineer’s professional judgment is overruled resulting in a safety concern, it is their responsibility to notify employers, clients, authority figures, the public, and all involved.
- Engineers should be objective, truthful, and unbiased.
- Engineers should not express opinions in areas they are not qualified in,
- Engineers should not associate with anyone or anything that is unethical
Brief History of a few Engineering Failures:
1628 The Vasa (ship)
35-50 sailors killed
Sank on it's maiden voyage.
The king, who was leading the army in Poland at the time of her maiden voyage, was impatient to see her take up her station.
The king's subordinates lacked the political courage to openly discuss the ship's structural problems
No one was punished for the fiasco.
1862 Hartley Colliery Mining Disaster
204 killed
Coal mining accident in Northumberland, England. The beam of the pit's pumping engine broke and fell down the shaft, trapping the men below. The disaster prompted a change in UK law that henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape
1889 -Johnstown Flood, Pennsylvania
2, 209 killed from dam failure
20,000,000 tons of water and countless tons of debris down the valley to Johnstown, 99 entire families were lost, 396 children under the age of ten perished, while 568 children lost one or both parents. On June 1, 1889, Johnstown had an additional 198 widowers and 124 widows. Property losses topped the $30,000,000 mark.
1500 + people killed
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the
North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning of 15 April 1912 after colliding with
an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City, US.
The sinking resulted in the loss of more than 1,500 passengers and crew making
it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern
history. The RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time it entered
service.
1917 - Halifax Cargo Ship Explosion, Nova Scotia, Canada
Over 1,600 people killed instantly
9,000 were injured.
Every building within a 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) radius, over 12,000 total, was destroyed or badly damaged
21 killed, 150 injured when
2,300,000 US gal
A large molasses tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and residents claim that on a hot summer day, the area still smells of molasses.
1928 - St. Francis Dam failure link
450 killed (Los Angeles)
The California Water Wars - conflicts between the city of Los Angeles, farmers and ranchers in the Owens Valley of Eastern California, and environmentalists- so much water was diverted from the Owens Valley that agriculture became difficult. This led to the farmers trying to destroy the aqueduct.
1930's Dust Bowl
100,000,000 acres destroyed, 500,000 Americans left homeless
1937 Hindenburg
35 killed, end of the airship era.
1937 Texas (New London) School explosion
natural gas leak
killed more than 295 students and teachers
1944 - Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion
130 people killed, completely destroyed town of Santa Paula
Storage tank with liquefied natural gas in East Ohio Gas Company's tank farm begins to emit vapor Winds carries vapor into the sewer lines, mixed with the sewer gas the mixture ignited....One manhole cover was found several miles away
At first it was thought that the disaster was contained, and spectators returned home thinking that the matter was being taken care of ...then a second above-ground tank exploded, leveling the tank farm.
explosions and fires continued to occur, trapping many who had returned to what they thought was safe... the explosions traveled through the sewers and up through drains into homes.
1947 Texas City disaster
568 killed
Fire on French-ship holding ~ 2,100 metric tons of ammonium
nitrate escalates, attracts a crowd of
spectators - Spectators see boiling water around the docked ship, and the
splashing water touching the hull of the ship was vaporized into steam... After an hour or so, the entire ship blows
up. Initial blast creates chain-reaction
of explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage tanks, killing 581 +
people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department.
1948 - Ship explosion kills 6,000 Chinese troops
link
1979 American Airlines Flight 191
273 people killed, grounded all DC-10's
Engine number one on the left wing separated and flipped
over the top of the wing. As the engine separated from the aircraft, it severed
hydraulic fluid lines that locked the wing leading edge slats in place, and it
damaged a three-foot section of the left wing's leading edge. Air loads on the
wing resulted in an uncommanded retraction of the outboard slats. As the jet
attempted to climb, the left wing stalled while the right wing, with its slats
still deployed, continued to produce lift. The jetliner subsequently rolled to
the left until it was partially inverted, reaching a bank angle of 112 degrees,
before crashing in an open field
1979 - 1980 Pemex oil disaster
3 million barrels + leaked
1980 Alexander L. Kielland oil platform capsizing
Of the 212 people aboard 123 were killed, making it the worst disaster in Norwegian offshore history since WWII... the rig collapsed owing to a fatigue crack in one of its six bracings, which connected the collapsed D-leg to the rest of the rig. This was traced to a small 6mm fillet weld...
1981 -
Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Collapse
114 killed, 200+ injured
All 84 oil workers killed, no survivors.
Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 267 kilometres (166 mi) east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd. (MOCAN) with 84 crew members on board when it sank. There were no survivors.
1984 - San Juanico disaster
industrial disaster - explosions at a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tank farm 500–600 people killed, and 5000–7000 others suffering severe burns
1984 - Bhopal disaster
500,000? people exposed to methyl isocyanate gas, 3,000-16,000? killed.
1986 - Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
336,000 people relocated, ~ 4,000 killed
1987 MV Doña Paz 1,565–4,400 lives
1988 Piper Alpha
167 men killed
575 killedexplosion occurred when a leaking natural gas liquids (mainly propane and butane) pipeline created a highly flammable cloud that was ignited by sparks created by two passenger trains passing each other. Both trains were carrying children: one was returning from a holiday vacation on the Black Sea and the other was taking children there.
1994 Estonia - 852 dead
2001 Petrobras 36 - oil platform that sank
11 killed
two explosions in the aft starboard column at or around the emergency drain tank. The first explosion was caused by an overpressure event, the second by ignition of leaking hydrocarbon vapor. At the time there were 175 people on the rig; 11 were killed. Following the explosions, the rig developed a 16° list, sufficient to allow down-flooding from the submerged fairlead boxes.
Marine salvage teams tried over the weekend to save the platform by pumping nitrogen and compressed air into the tanks to expel the water, but they abandoned the rig after bad weather.
The platform sank five days after the explosions (March 20), in 1,200 m (3,940 ft) of water with an estimated 1,500 tonnes (1,700 short tons) of crude oil remaining on board.
2004 Sri Lanka tsunami-rail disaster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Sri_Lanka_tsunami-rail_disaster
2010 - Deepwater Horizon (BP) oil spill
11 people killed, ~ 5 million barrels leaked
2010 - explosion at Upper Big Branch Mine, which killed 29 miners
2011 - Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Backup cooling pump failure
April 24, 2013 - Rana Plaza collapse, (Bangladesh)
at least 1,129 killed
Approximately 2,515 injured people were rescued from the building alive.
May 13, 2014 Soma Mine Disaster
NSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers - link
National Society of Professional Engineers
- This is one of the documents used for interpreting ethical dilemmas submitted by engineers, public officials, and members of the public.
- We will use this code to analyze several cases of possible engineering ethics violations, through which you will need to argue the innocence or guilt of the engineers involved, what principles they violated, and what steps they can take in the future to prevent any similar failures.
- Read through the NSPE Code of Ethics
- Highlight anything that seems important, or is confusing to you.
NSPE Board of Ethical Review - link
Assignment:
- Imagine you are on the NSPE Board of Ethical Review. Read through a few previously addressed Ethics cases:
http://www.nspe.org/Ethics/EthicsResources/BER/index.html#2012
then-- Choose a recalled product, or engineering disaster from the above lists and examples.
Work in groups of 2-3 - Use the Ethics code to answer questions concerning the case, and present your case to the class.
1. Choose an engineering disaster or product recall to investigate. Briefly list (in bullet form) the facts about the incident. List the ethical issues involved, and prioritize these issues from most critical to least critical.
2. What could have been done to prevent this incident from happening?
3. How was the case resolved in real life? (ie, who lost their job, how much $ were the victims paid, what new regulations were imposed, etc.) Do you agree with outcome on your case? Should more have been done? less? Support your answer by citing relevant sections in the Code of Ethics, and through using background info on the resolution of other similar cases.
4. Think about what ethical issues might come up in your chosen field of work. How do you plan on addressing these issues?
