Chapter 3 Introduction to Engineering Ethics

1. Chapter 3 Introduction to Engineering Ethics

2. Ethics and ethical reasoning is vitally important in engineering. It can be a matter of life and death. Consider a worst case scenario The Challenger Disaster

3. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology • Responsible for accrediting undergraduate engineering. • Mandates ethics to be incorporated into education to educate future engineers in ethical practice.

4. What is Engineering Ethics? • Ethics is: • The study of the characteristics of • morals. • The moral choices made by people in • their relationships with others. Engineering Ethics: The philosophy indicating ways that engineers should conduct themselves in their professional capacity.

5. Why Study Engineering Ethics? The widely publicized cases that have occurred in recent years has drawn attention to the need for more education in ethical behavior. What is moral autonomy? • The ability to think critically and independently about • moral issues. • Apply this moral thinking to situations that arise in • professional engineering practice. • Moral autonomy is at the heart of engineering ethics.

6. The Challenger Lift-off on January 28, 1986. The Space Shuttle, Challenger’s exploded 73 seconds after launching. The explosion resulted in the deaths of all seven crew members.

7. The Challenger crash involved an exceptionally disastrous. Neglect of Engineering Ethics Thankfully, most ethical problems you’ll encounter will be less catastrophic than the Challenger disaster. But, though less catastrophic, ethical problems will arise frequently in your careers as engineers and they will have profound influence on your success. First, we need to understand that ethical reasoning uses different methods from mathematics and the sciences. Every ethical problem involves a conflict of goals and Interests.

8. Basic goals that often come into conflict for engineers A goal to maintain professional competence. • A goal to be loyal to interests of employers and clients. • A goal to be honest to employers, customers and the • public. • A goal to be non-discriminatory to co-workers and • clients regarding their race, color, religion, gender, • ethnicity, age or disability. • A goal to use your skills and knowledge for the enhancementof human welfare and the environment.

9. What are you doing to apply the Engineering Ethics? You are working in maintenance department of forklift. Your supervisor telling you drain out the machine lubricant oil and coolant, and recharge the machine with new and pour the used oil and coolant outside. You know the oil and coolant is toxic; It may kill people or cause cancer. What do you do ? Please think to yourself, the citizen health, and the environment. Please decide what do you do?

10. Environmental Protection Agency This is how we meet most ethical problems, as a choice between two disagreeable alternatives. In this case, obeying the supervisor or quitting. They are “dilemmas” in the strict sense of the word. They are “dilemmas” in the strict sense of the word. Dilemmas ? Dilemma is a choice between two equally unfavorable or disagreeable alternatives.

11. Although sometimes we are up against a wall facing a choice between two undesirable alternatives and must choose one of them, we usually can find a better solution. • Finding the better solution requires we become skilled in ethical problem-solving. This skill consists in arriving at a third alternative that answers both sides of the dilemma and resolves the conflict. • In ethical problem solving, we consider paradigm cases that would ideally satisfy either side of the goals that bear upon the case.

12. So let’s apply it to your Case. What would a paradigm case of disposing of toxic Oil and Coolants consist in? The removal of toxic substances from the used oil and coolant. The highest toxicities come from the heavy metals copper, lead and zinc. 2. A less toxic substance in engine coolant is ethylene glycol. It is treatable at wastewater treatment plants. 3. So, the ‘heavy metal captured’ coolant must be disposed of in sewers that connect to wastewater treatment plants and never into surface or storm water collection systems. Thank you