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The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for Engineering Ethics

• Original Research/Scholarship
• Published: 10 July 2020
• Volume 26 , pages 2957–2974, ( 2020 )

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• Joseph Herkert 1 ,
• Jason Borenstein 2 &
• Keith Miller 3  

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The crash of two 737 MAX passenger aircraft in late 2018 and early 2019, and subsequent grounding of the entire fleet of 737 MAX jets, turned a global spotlight on Boeing’s practices and culture. Explanations for the crashes include: design flaws within the MAX’s new flight control software system designed to prevent stalls; internal pressure to keep pace with Boeing’s chief competitor, Airbus; Boeing’s lack of transparency about the new software; and the lack of adequate monitoring of Boeing by the FAA, especially during the certification of the MAX and following the first crash. While these and other factors have been the subject of numerous government reports and investigative journalism articles, little to date has been written on the ethical significance of the accidents, in particular the ethical responsibilities of the engineers at Boeing and the FAA involved in designing and certifying the MAX. Lessons learned from this case include the need to strengthen the voice of engineers within large organizations. There is also the need for greater involvement of professional engineering societies in ethics-related activities and for broader focus on moral courage in engineering ethics education.

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Introduction

In October 2018 and March 2019, Boeing 737 MAX passenger jets crashed minutes after takeoff; these two accidents claimed nearly 350 lives. After the second incident, all 737 MAX planes were grounded worldwide. The 737 MAX was an updated version of the 737 workhorse that first began flying in the 1960s. The crashes were precipitated by a failure of an Angle of Attack (AOA) sensor and the subsequent activation of new flight control software, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The MCAS software was intended to compensate for changes in the size and placement of the engines on the MAX as compared to prior versions of the 737. The existence of the software, designed to prevent a stall due to the reconfiguration of the engines, was not disclosed to pilots until after the first crash. Even after that tragic incident, pilots were not required to undergo simulation training on the 737 MAX.

In this paper, we examine several aspects of the case, including technical and other factors that led up to the crashes, especially Boeing’s design choices and organizational tensions internal to the company, and between Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). While the case is ongoing and at this writing, the 737 MAX has yet to be recertified for flight, our analysis is based on numerous government reports and detailed news accounts currently available. We conclude with a discussion of specific lessons for engineers and engineering educators regarding engineering ethics.

Overview of 737 MAX History and Crashes

In December 2010, Boeing’s primary competitor Airbus announced the A320neo family of jetliners, an update of their successful A320 narrow-body aircraft. The A320neo featured larger, more fuel-efficient engines. Boeing had been planning to introduce a totally new aircraft to replace its successful, but dated, 737 line of jets; yet to remain competitive with Airbus, Boeing instead announced in August 2011 the 737 MAX family, an update of the 737NG with similar engine upgrades to the A320neo and other improvements (Gelles et al. 2019 ). The 737 MAX, which entered service in May 2017, became Boeing’s fastest-selling airliner of all time with 5000 orders from over 100 airlines worldwide (Boeing n.d. a) (See Fig.  1 for timeline of 737 MAX key events).

737 MAX timeline showing key events from 2010 to 2019

The 737 MAX had been in operation for over a year when on October 29, 2018, Lion Air flight JT610 crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia; all 189 passengers and crew on board died. Monitoring from the flight data recorder recovered from the wreckage indicated that MCAS, the software specifically designed for the MAX, forced the nose of the aircraft down 26 times in 10 minutes (Gates 2018 ). In October 2019, the Final Report of Indonesia’s Lion Air Accident Investigation was issued. The Report placed some of the blame on the pilots and maintenance crews but concluded that Boeing and the FAA were primarily responsible for the crash (Republic of Indonesia 2019 ).

MCAS was not identified in the original documentation/training for 737 MAX pilots (Glanz et al. 2019 ). But after the Lion Air crash, Boeing ( 2018 ) issued a Flight Crew Operations Manual Bulletin on November 6, 2018 containing procedures for responding to flight control problems due to possible erroneous AOA inputs. The next day the FAA ( 2018a ) issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive on the same subject; however, the FAA did not ground the 737 MAX at that time. According to published reports, these notices were the first time that airline pilots learned of the existence of MCAS (e.g., Bushey 2019 ).

On March 20, 2019, about four months after the Lion Air crash, Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 crashed 6 minutes after takeoff in a field 39 miles from Addis Ababa Airport. The accident caused the deaths of all 157 passengers and crew. The Preliminary Report of the Ethiopian Airlines Accident Investigation (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 2019 ), issued in April 2019, indicated that the pilots followed the checklist from the Boeing Flight Crew Operations Manual Bulletin posted after the Lion Air crash but could not control the plane (Ahmed et al. 2019 ). This was followed by an Interim Report (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 2020 ) issued in March 2020 that exonerated the pilots and airline, and placed blame for the accident on design flaws in the MAX (Marks and Dahir 2020 ). Following the second crash, the 737 MAX was grounded worldwide with the U.S., through the FAA, being the last country to act on March 13, 2019 (Kaplan et al. 2019 ).

Design Choices that Led to the Crashes

As noted above, with its belief that it must keep up with its main competitor, Airbus, Boeing elected to modify the latest generation of the 737 family, the 737NG, rather than design an entirely new aircraft. Yet this raised a significant engineering challenge for Boeing. Mounting larger, more fuel-efficient engines, similar to those employed on the A320neo, on the existing 737 airframe posed a serious design problem, because the 737 family was built closer to the ground than the Airbus A320. In order to provide appropriate ground clearance, the larger engines had to be mounted higher and farther forward on the wings than previous models of the 737 (see Fig.  2 ). This significantly changed the aerodynamics of the aircraft and created the possibility of a nose-up stall under certain flight conditions (Travis 2019 ; Glanz et al. 2019 ).

(Image source: https://www.norebbo.com )

Boeing 737 MAX (left) compared to Boeing 737NG (right) showing larger 737 MAX engines mounted higher and more forward on the wing.

Boeing’s attempt to solve this problem involved incorporating MCAS as a software fix for the potential stall condition. The 737 was designed with two AOA sensors, one on each side of the aircraft. Yet Boeing decided that the 737 MAX would only use input from one of the plane’s two AOA sensors. If the single AOA sensor was triggered, MCAS would detect a dangerous nose-up condition and send a signal to the horizontal stabilizer located in the tail. Movement of the stabilizer would then force the plane’s tail up and the nose down (Travis 2019 ). In both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Air crashes, the AOA sensor malfunctioned, repeatedly activating MCAS (Gates 2018 ; Ahmed et al. 2019 ). Since the two crashes, Boeing has made adjustments to the MCAS, including that the system will rely on input from the two AOA sensors instead of just one. But still more problems with MCAS have been uncovered. For example, an indicator light that would alert pilots if the jet’s two AOA sensors disagreed, thought by Boeing to be standard on all MAX aircraft, would only operate as part of an optional equipment package that neither airline involved in the crashes purchased (Gelles and Kitroeff 2019a ).

Similar to its responses to previous accidents, Boeing has been reluctant to admit to a design flaw in its aircraft, instead blaming pilot error (Hall and Goelz 2019 ). In the 737 MAX case, the company pointed to the pilots’ alleged inability to control the planes under stall conditions (Economy 2019 ). Following the Ethiopian Airlines crash, Boeing acknowledged for the first time that MCAS played a primary role in the crashes, while continuing to highlight that other factors, such as pilot error, were also involved (Hall and Goelz 2019 ). For example, on April 29, 2019, more than a month after the second crash, then Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg defended MCAS by stating:

We've confirmed that [the MCAS system] was designed per our standards, certified per our standards, and we're confident in that process. So, it operated according to those design and certification standards. So, we haven't seen a technical slip or gap in terms of the fundamental design and certification of the approach. (Economy 2019 )

The view that MCAS was not primarily at fault was supported within an article written by noted journalist and pilot William Langewiesche ( 2019 ). While not denying Boeing made serious mistakes, he placed ultimate blame on the use of inexperienced pilots by the two airlines involved in the crashes. Langewiesche suggested that the accidents resulted from the cost-cutting practices of the airlines and the lax regulatory environments in which they operated. He argued that more experienced pilots, despite their lack of information on MCAS, should have been able to take corrective action to control the planes using customary stall prevention procedures. Langewiesche ( 2019 ) concludes in his article that:

What we had in the two downed airplanes was a textbook failure of airmanship. In broad daylight, these pilots couldn’t decipher a variant of a simple runaway trim, and they ended up flying too fast at low altitude, neglecting to throttle back and leading their passengers over an aerodynamic edge into oblivion. They were the deciding factor here — not the MCAS, not the Max.

Others have taken a more critical view of MCAS, Boeing, and the FAA. These critics prominently include Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who famously crash-landed an A320 in the Hudson River after bird strikes had knocked out both of the plane’s engines. Sullenberger responded directly to Langewiesche in a letter to the Editor:

… Langewiesche draws the conclusion that the pilots are primarily to blame for the fatal crashes of Lion Air 610 and Ethiopian 302. In resurrecting this age-old aviation canard, Langewiesche minimizes the fatal design flaws and certification failures that precipitated those tragedies, and still pose a threat to the flying public. I have long stated, as he does note, that pilots must be capable of absolute mastery of the aircraft and the situation at all times, a concept pilots call airmanship. Inadequate pilot training and insufficient pilot experience are problems worldwide, but they do not excuse the fatally flawed design of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that was a death trap.... (Sullenberger 2019 )

Noting that he is one of the few pilots to have encountered both accident sequences in a 737 MAX simulator, Sullenberger continued:

These emergencies did not present as a classic runaway stabilizer problem, but initially as ambiguous unreliable airspeed and altitude situations, masking MCAS. The MCAS design should never have been approved, not by Boeing, and not by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)…. (Sullenberger 2019 )

In June 2019, Sullenberger noted in Congressional Testimony that “These crashes are demonstrable evidence that our current system of aircraft design and certification has failed us. These accidents should never have happened” (Benning and DiFurio 2019 ).

Others have agreed with Sullenberger’s assessment. Software developer and pilot Gregory Travis ( 2019 ) argues that Boeing’s design for the 737 MAX violated industry norms and that the company unwisely used software to compensate for inadequacies in the hardware design. Travis also contends that the existence of MCAS was not disclosed to pilots in order to preserve the fiction that the 737 MAX was just an update of earlier 737 models, which served as a way to circumvent the more stringent FAA certification requirements for a new airplane. Reports from government agencies seem to support this assessment, emphasizing the chaotic cockpit conditions created by MCAS and poor certification practices. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ( 2019 ) Safety Recommendations to the FAA in September 2019 indicated that Boeing underestimated the effect MCAS malfunction would have on the cockpit environment (Kitroeff 2019 , a , b ). The FAA Joint Authorities Technical Review ( 2019 ), which included international participation, issued its Final Report in October 2019. The Report faulted Boeing and FAA in MCAS certification (Koenig 2019 ).

Despite Boeing’s attempts to downplay the role of MCAS, it began to work on a fix for the system shortly after the Lion Air crash (Gates 2019 ). MCAS operation will now be based on inputs from both AOA sensors, instead of just one sensor, with a cockpit indicator light when the sensors disagree. In addition, MCAS will only be activated once for an AOA warning rather than multiple times. What follows is that the system would only seek to prevent a stall once per AOA warning. Also, MCAS’s power will be limited in terms of how much it can move the stabilizer and manual override by the pilot will always be possible (Bellamy 2019 ; Boeing n.d. b; Gates 2019 ). For over a year after the Lion Air crash, Boeing held that pilot simulator training would not be required for the redesigned MCAS system. In January 2020, Boeing relented and recommended that pilot simulator training be required when the 737 MAX returns to service (Pasztor et al. 2020 ).

Boeing and the FAA

There is mounting evidence that Boeing, and the FAA as well, had warnings about the inadequacy of MCAS’s design, and about the lack of communication to pilots about its existence and functioning. In 2015, for example, an unnamed Boeing engineer raised in an email the issue of relying on a single AOA sensor (Bellamy 2019 ). In 2016, Mark Forkner, Boeing’s Chief Technical Pilot, in an email to a colleague flagged the erratic behavior of MCAS in a flight simulator noting: “It’s running rampant” (Gelles and Kitroeff 2019c ). Forkner subsequently came under federal investigation regarding whether he misled the FAA regarding MCAS (Kitroeff and Schmidt 2020 ).

In December 2018, following the Lion Air Crash, the FAA ( 2018b ) conducted a Risk Assessment that estimated that fifteen more 737 MAX crashes would occur in the expected fleet life of 45 years if the flight control issues were not addressed; this Risk Assessment was not publicly disclosed until Congressional hearings a year later in December 2019 (Arnold 2019 ). After the two crashes, a senior Boeing engineer, Curtis Ewbank, filed an internal ethics complaint in 2019 about management squelching of a system that might have uncovered errors in the AOA sensors. Ewbank has since publicly stated that “I was willing to stand up for safety and quality… Boeing management was more concerned with cost and schedule than safety or quality” (Kitroeff et al. 2019b ).

One factor in Boeing’s apparent reluctance to heed such warnings may be attributed to the seeming transformation of the company’s engineering and safety culture over time to a finance orientation beginning with Boeing’s merger with McDonnell–Douglas in 1997 (Tkacik 2019 ; Useem 2019 ). Critical changes after the merger included replacing many in Boeing’s top management, historically engineers, with business executives from McDonnell–Douglas and moving the corporate headquarters to Chicago, while leaving the engineering staff in Seattle (Useem 2019 ). According to Tkacik ( 2019 ), the new management even went so far as “maligning and marginalizing engineers as a class”.

Financial drivers thus began to place an inordinate amount of strain on Boeing employees, including engineers. During the development of the 737 MAX, significant production pressure to keep pace with the Airbus 320neo was ever-present. For example, Boeing management allegedly rejected any design changes that would prolong certification or require additional pilot training for the MAX (Gelles et al. 2019 ). As Adam Dickson, a former Boeing engineer, explained in a television documentary (BBC Panorama 2019 ): “There was a lot of interest and pressure on the certification and analysis engineers in particular, to look at any changes to the Max as minor changes”.

Production pressures were exacerbated by the “cozy relationship” between Boeing and the FAA (Kitroeff et al. 2019a ; see also Gelles and Kaplan 2019 ; Hall and Goelz 2019 ). Beginning in 2005, the FAA increased its reliance on manufacturers to certify their own planes. Self-certification became standard practice throughout the U.S. airline industry. By 2018, Boeing was certifying 96% of its own work (Kitroeff et al. 2019a ).

The serious drawbacks to self-certification became acutely apparent in this case. Of particular concern, the safety analysis for MCAS delegated to Boeing by the FAA was flawed in at least three respects: (1) the analysis underestimated the power of MCAS to move the plane’s horizontal tail and thus how difficult it would be for pilots to maintain control of the aircraft; (2) it did not account for the system deploying multiple times; and (3) it underestimated the risk level if MCAS failed, thus permitting a design feature—the single AOA sensor input to MCAS—that did not have built-in redundancy (Gates 2019 ). Related to these concerns, the ability of MCAS to move the horizontal tail was increased without properly updating the safety analysis or notifying the FAA about the change (Gates 2019 ). In addition, the FAA did not require pilot training for MCAS or simulator training for the 737 MAX (Gelles and Kaplan 2019 ). Since the MAX grounding, the FAA has been become more independent during its assessments and certifications—for example, they will not use Boeing personnel when certifying approvals of new 737 MAX planes (Josephs 2019 ).

The role of the FAA has also been subject to political scrutiny. The report of a study of the FAA certification process commissioned by Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (DOT 2020 ), released January 16, 2020, concluded that the FAA certification process was “appropriate and effective,” and that certification of the MAX as a new airplane would not have made a difference in the plane’s safety. At the same time, the report recommended a number of measures to strengthen the process and augment FAA’s staff (Pasztor and Cameron 2020 ). In contrast, a report of preliminary investigative findings by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (House TI 2020 ), issued in March 2020, characterized FAA’s certification of the MAX as “grossly insufficient” and criticized Boeing’s design flaws and lack of transparency with the FAA, airlines, and pilots (Duncan and Laris 2020 ).

Boeing has incurred significant economic losses from the crashes and subsequent grounding of the MAX. In December 2019, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg was fired and the corporation announced that 737 MAX production would be suspended in January 2020 (Rich 2019 ) (see Fig.  1 ). Boeing is facing numerous lawsuits and possible criminal investigations. Boeing estimates that its economic losses for the 737 MAX will exceed $18 billion (Gelles 2020 ). In addition to the need to fix MCAS, other issues have arisen in recertification of the aircraft, including wiring for controls of the tail stabilizer, possible weaknesses in the engine rotors, and vulnerabilities in lightning protection for the engines (Kitroeff and Gelles 2020 ). The FAA had planned to flight test the 737 MAX early in 2020, and it was supposed to return to service in summer 2020 (Gelles and Kitroeff 2020 ). Given the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, it is difficult to predict when MAX flights might resume. In addition, uncertainty of passenger demand has resulted in some airlines delaying or cancelling orders for the MAX (Bogaisky 2020 ). Even after obtaining flight approval, public resistance to flying in the 737 MAX will probably be considerable (Gelles 2019 ).

Lessons for Engineering Ethics

The 737 MAX case is still unfolding and will continue to do so for some time. Yet important lessons can already be learned (or relearned) from the case. Some of those lessons are straightforward, and others are more subtle. A key and clear lesson is that engineers may need reminders about prioritizing the public good, and more specifically, the public’s safety. A more subtle lesson pertains to the ways in which the problem of many hands may or may not apply here. Other lessons involve the need for corporations, engineering societies, and engineering educators to rise to the challenge of nurturing and supporting ethical behavior on the part of engineers, especially in light of the difficulties revealed in this case.

All contemporary codes of ethics promulgated by major engineering societies state that an engineer’s paramount responsibility is to protect the “safety, health, and welfare” of the public. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Code of Ethics indicates that engineers must “[H]old paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public in the performance of their duties” (AIAA 2013 ). The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Code of Ethics goes further, pledging its members: “…to hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public, to strive to comply with ethical design and sustainable development practices, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment” (IEEE 2017 ). The IEEE Computer Society (CS) cooperated with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in developing a Software Engineering Code of Ethics ( 1997 ) which holds that software engineers shall: “Approve software only if they have a well-founded belief that it is safe, meets specifications, passes appropriate tests, and does not diminish quality of life, diminish privacy or harm the environment….” According to Gotterbarn and Miller ( 2009 ), the latter code is a useful guide when examining cases involving software design and underscores the fact that during design, as in all engineering practice, the well-being of the public should be the overriding concern. While engineering codes of ethics are plentiful in number, they differ in their source of moral authority (i.e., organizational codes vs. professional codes), are often unenforceable through the law, and formally apply to different groups of engineers (e.g., based on discipline or organizational membership). However, the codes are generally recognized as a statement of the values inherent to engineering and its ethical commitments (Davis 2015 ).

An engineer’s ethical responsibility does not preclude consideration of factors such as cost and schedule (Pinkus et al. 1997 ). Engineers always have to grapple with constraints, including time and resource limitations. The engineers working at Boeing did have legitimate concerns about their company losing contracts to its competitor Airbus. But being an engineer means that public safety and welfare must be the highest priority (Davis 1991 ). The aforementioned software and other design errors in the development of the 737 MAX, which resulted in hundreds of deaths, would thus seem to be clear violations of engineering codes of ethics. In addition to pointing to engineering codes, Peterson ( 2019 ) argues that Boeing engineers and managers violated widely accepted ethical norms such as informed consent and the precautionary principle.

From an engineering perspective, the central ethical issue in the MAX case arguably circulates around the decision to use software (i.e., MCAS) to “mask” a questionable hardware design—the repositioning of the engines that disrupted the aerodynamics of the airframe (Travis 2019 ). As Johnston and Harris ( 2019 ) argue: “To meet the design goals and avoid an expensive hardware change, Boeing created the MCAS as a software Band-Aid.” Though a reliance on software fixes often happens in this manner, it places a high burden of safety on such fixes that they may not be able to handle, as is illustrated by the case of the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine. In the Therac-25 case, hardware safety interlocks employed in earlier models of the machine were replaced by software safety controls. In addition, information about how the software might malfunction was lacking from the user manual for the Therac machine. Thus, when certain types of errors appeared on its interface, the machine’s operators did not know how to respond. Software flaws, among other factors, contributed to six patients being given massive radiation overdoses, resulting in deaths and serious injuries (Leveson and Turner 1993 ). A more recent case involves problems with the embedded software guiding the electronic throttle in Toyota vehicles. In 2013, “…a jury found Toyota responsible for two unintended acceleration deaths, with expert witnesses citing bugs in the software and throttle fail safe defects” (Cummings and Britton 2020 ).

Boeing’s use of MCAS to mask the significant change in hardware configuration of the MAX was compounded by not providing redundancy for components prone to failure (i.e., the AOA sensors) (Campbell 2019 ), and by failing to notify pilots about the new software. In such cases, it is especially crucial that pilots receive clear documentation and relevant training so that they know how to manage the hand-off with an automated system properly (Johnston and Harris 2019 ). Part of the necessity for such training is related to trust calibration (Borenstein et al. 2020 ; Borenstein et al. 2018 ), a factor that has contributed to previous airplane accidents (e.g., Carr 2014 ). For example, if pilots do not place enough trust in an automated system, they may add risk by intervening in system operation. Conversely, if pilots trust an automated system too much, they may lack sufficient time to act once they identify a problem. This is further complicated in the MAX case because pilots were not fully aware, if at all, of MCAS’s existence and how the system functioned.

In addition to engineering decision-making that failed to prioritize public safety, questionable management decisions were also made at both Boeing and the FAA. As noted earlier, Boeing managerial leadership ignored numerous warning signs that the 737 MAX was not safe. Also, FAA’s shift to greater reliance on self-regulation by Boeing was ill-advised; that lesson appears to have been learned at the expense of hundreds of lives (Duncan and Aratani 2019 ).

The Problem of Many Hands Revisited

Actions, or inaction, by large, complex organizations, in this case corporate and government entities, suggest that the “problem of many hands” may be relevant to the 737 MAX case. At a high level of abstraction, the problem of many hands involves the idea that accountability is difficult to assign in the face of collective action, especially in a computerized society (Thompson 1980 ; Nissenbaum 1994 ). According to Nissenbaum ( 1996 , 29), “Where a mishap is the work of ‘many hands,’ it may not be obvious who is to blame because frequently its most salient and immediate causal antecedents do not converge with its locus of decision-making. The conditions for blame, therefore, are not satisfied in a way normally satisfied when a single individual is held blameworthy for a harm”.

However, there is an alternative understanding of the problem of many hands. In this version of the problem, the lack of accountability is not merely because multiple people and multiple decisions figure into a final outcome. Instead, in order to “qualify” as the problem of many hands, the component decisions should be benign, or at least far less harmful, if examined in isolation; only when the individual decisions are collectively combined do we see the most harmful result. In this understanding, the individual decision-makers should not have the same moral culpability as they would if they made all the decisions by themselves (Noorman 2020 ).

Both of these understandings of the problem of many hands could shed light on the 737 MAX case. Yet we focus on the first version of the problem. We admit the possibility that some of the isolated decisions about the 737 MAX may have been made in part because of ignorance of a broader picture. While we do not stake a claim on whether this is what actually happened in the MAX case, we acknowledge that it may be true in some circumstances. However, we think the more important point is that some of the 737 MAX decisions were so clearly misguided that a competent engineer should have seen the implications, even if the engineer was not aware of all of the broader context. The problem then is to identify responsibility for the questionable decisions in a way that discourages bad judgments in the future, a task made more challenging by the complexities of the decision-making. Legal proceedings about this case are likely to explore those complexities in detail and are outside the scope of this article. But such complexities must be examined carefully so as not to act as an insulator to accountability.

When many individuals are involved in the design of a computing device, for example, and a serious failure occurs, each person might try to absolve themselves of responsibility by indicating that “too many people” and “too many decisions” were involved for any individual person to know that the problem was going to happen. This is a common, and often dubious, excuse in the attempt to abdicate responsibility for a harm. While it can have different levels of magnitude and severity, the problem of many hands often arises in large scale ethical failures in engineering such as in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (Thompson 2014 ).

Possible examples in the 737 MAX case of the difficulty of assigning moral responsibility due to the problem of many hands include:

The decision to reposition the engines;

The decision to mask the jet’s subsequent dynamic instability with MCAS;

The decision to rely on only one AOA sensor in designing MCAS; and

The decision to not inform nor properly train pilots about the MCAS system.

While overall responsibility for each of these decisions may be difficult to allocate precisely, at least points 1–3 above arguably reflect fundamental errors in engineering judgement (Travis 2019 ). Boeing engineers and FAA engineers either participated in or were aware of these decisions (Kitroeff and Gelles 2019 ) and may have had opportunities to reconsider or redirect such decisions. As Davis has noted ( 2012 ), responsible engineering professionals make it their business to address problems even when they did not cause the problem, or, we would argue, solely cause it. As noted earlier, reports indicate that at least one Boeing engineer expressed reservations about the design of MCAS (Bellamy 2019 ). Since the two crashes, one Boeing engineer, Curtis Ewbank, filed an internal ethics complaint (Kitroeff et al. 2019b ) and several current and former Boeing engineers and other employees have gone public with various concerns about the 737 MAX (Pasztor 2019 ). And yet, as is often the case, the flawed design went forward with tragic results.

Enabling Ethical Engineers

The MAX case is eerily reminiscent of other well-known engineering ethics case studies such as the Ford Pinto (Birsch and Fielder 1994 ), Space Shuttle Challenger (Werhane 1991 ), and GM ignition switch (Jennings and Trautman 2016 ). In the Pinto case, Ford engineers were aware of the unsafe placement of the fuel tank well before the car was released to the public and signed off on the design even though crash tests showed the tank was vulnerable to rupture during low-speed rear-end collisions (Baura 2006 ). In the case of the GM ignition switch, engineers knew for at least four years about the faulty design, a flaw that resulted in at least a dozen fatal accidents (Stephan 2016 ). In the case of the well-documented Challenger accident, engineer Roger Boisjoly warned his supervisors at Morton Thiokol of potentially catastrophic flaws in the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters a full six months before the accident. He, along with other engineers, unsuccessfully argued on the eve of launch for a delay due to the effect that freezing temperatures could have on the boosters’ O-ring seals. Boisjoly was also one of a handful of engineers to describe these warnings to the Presidential commission investigating the accident (Boisjoly et al. 1989 ).

Returning to the 737 MAX case, could Ewbank or others with concerns about the safety of the airplane have done more than filing ethics complaints or offering public testimony only after the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes? One might argue that requiring professional registration by all engineers in the U.S. would result in more ethical conduct (for example, by giving state licensing boards greater oversight authority). Yet the well-entrenched “industry exemption” from registration for most engineers working in large corporations has undermined such calls (Kline 2001 ).

It could empower engineers with safety concerns if Boeing and other corporations would strengthen internal ethics processes, including sincere and meaningful responsiveness to anonymous complaint channels. Schwartz ( 2013 ) outlines three core components of an ethical corporate culture, including strong core ethical values, a formal ethics program (including an ethics hotline), and capable ethical leadership. Schwartz points to Siemens’ creation of an ethics and compliance department following a bribery scandal as an example of a good solution. Boeing has had a compliance department for quite some time (Schnebel and Bienert 2004 ) and has taken efforts in the past to evaluate its effectiveness (Boeing 2003 ). Yet it is clear that more robust measures are needed in response to ethics concerns and complaints. Since the MAX crashes, Boeing’s Board has implemented a number of changes including establishing a corporate safety group and revising internal reporting procedures so that lead engineers primarily report to the chief engineer rather than business managers (Gelles and Kitroeff 2019b , Boeing n.d. c). Whether these measures will be enough to restore Boeing’s former engineering-centered focus remains to be seen.

Professional engineering societies could play a stronger role in communicating and enforcing codes of ethics, in supporting ethical behavior of engineers, and by providing more educational opportunities for learning about ethics and about the ethical responsibilities of engineers. Some societies, including ACM and IEEE, have become increasingly engaged in ethics-related activities. Initially ethics engagement by the societies consisted primarily of a focus on macroethical issues such as sustainable development (Herkert 2004 ). Recently, however, the societies have also turned to a greater focus on microethical issues (the behavior of individuals). The 2017 revision to the IEEE Code of Ethics, for example, highlights the importance of “ethical design” (Adamson and Herkert 2020 ). This parallels IEEE activities in the area of design of autonomous and intelligent systems (e.g., IEEE 2018 ). A promising outcome of this emphasis is a move toward implementing “ethical design” frameworks (Peters et al. 2020 ).

In terms of engineering education, educators need to place a greater emphasis on fostering moral courage, that is the courage to act on one’s moral convictions including adherence to codes of ethics. This is of particular significance in large organizations such as Boeing and the FAA where the agency of engineers may be limited by factors such as organizational culture (Watts and Buckley 2017 ). In a study of twenty-six ethics interventions in engineering programs, Hess and Fore ( 2018 ) found that only twenty-seven percent had a learning goal of development of “ethical courage, confidence or commitment”. This goal could be operationalized in a number of ways, for example through a focus on virtue ethics (Harris 2008 ) or professional identity (Hashemian and Loui 2010 ). This need should not only be addressed within the engineering curriculum but during lifelong learning initiatives and other professional development opportunities as well (Miller 2019 ).

The circumstances surrounding the 737 MAX airplane could certainly serve as an informative case study for ethics or technical courses. The case can shed light on important lessons for engineers including the complex interactions, and sometimes tensions, between engineering and managerial considerations. The case also tangibly displays that what seems to be relatively small-scale, and likely well-intended, decisions by individual engineers can combine collectively to result in large-scale tragedy. No individual person wanted to do harm, but it happened nonetheless. Thus, the case can serve a reminder to current and future generations of engineers that public safety must be the first and foremost priority. A particularly useful pedagogical method for considering this case is to assign students to the roles of engineers, managers, and regulators, as well as the flying public, airline personnel, and representatives of engineering societies (Herkert 1997 ). In addition to illuminating the perspectives and responsibilities of each stakeholder group, role-playing can also shed light on the “macroethical” issues raised by the case (Martin et al. 2019 ) such as airline safety standards and the proper role for engineers and engineering societies in the regulation of the industry.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The case of the Boeing 737 MAX provides valuable lessons for engineers and engineering educators concerning the ethical responsibilities of the profession. Safety is not cheap, but careless engineering design in the name of minimizing costs and adhering to a delivery schedule is a symptom of ethical blight. Using almost any standard ethical analysis or framework, Boeing’s actions regarding the safety of the 737 MAX, particularly decisions regarding MCAS, fall short.

Boeing failed in its obligations to protect the public. At a minimum, the company had an obligation to inform airlines and pilots of significant design changes, especially the role of MCAS in compensating for repositioning of engines in the MAX from prior versions of the 737. Clearly, it was a “significant” change because it had a direct, and unfortunately tragic, impact on the public’s safety. The Boeing and FAA interaction underscores the fact that conflicts of interest are a serious concern in regulatory actions within the airline industry.

Internal and external organizational factors may have interfered with Boeing and FAA engineers’ fulfillment of their professional ethical responsibilities; this is an all too common problem that merits serious attention from industry leaders, regulators, professional societies, and educators. The lessons to be learned in this case are not new. After large scale tragedies involving engineering decision-making, calls for change often emerge. But such lessons apparently must be retaught and relearned by each generation of engineers.

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Herkert, J., Borenstein, J. & Miller, K. The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for Engineering Ethics. Sci Eng Ethics 26 , 2957–2974 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00252-y

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• Case 1001 – The Leaning Tower: A Timely Dilemma  + An out-of-state engineering expert provides services to preclude an imminent disaster, and is fined for his efforts.
• Case 1002 – Where the Green Grass Grows  + An employee from one firm moonlights for a second firm, then moves to it, taking most of the original firm’s staff with him over a weekend.
• Case 1003 – The Joy of Being Wanted  + While interviewing for a job in a distant city at the expense of the prospective employer, you also arrange interviews with others in that area and are faced with the problem of what to tell the first firm and how to handle their advanced expense allowance.
• Case 1004 – Expert Impartiality: A Thing of the Past? + An engineering consultant for a plaintiff is found to be cohabiting with the plaintiff’s attorney, and alleging to be an impartial expert witness.
• Case 1005 – The Peter/Paul Dilemma  + You are told by your boss to work on one project, and to charge the time spent to another client’s project.
• Case 1006 – The Coercive Contribution Conundrum  + Given an unexpected bonus before a local election, it is suggested strongly that you contribute the money to a candidate likely to provide contracts to the firm you work for if elected.
• Case 1007 – The Fetid Favor Fiasco  + An architect in a state college town hears that a local contractor working on a project at the university is using men and materials from that project to build a garage at the home of one of the project managers employed by the university.
• Case 1008 – To Flush or Not to Flush: That’s the Question  + Putting the final touches on a toxic contaminant study report, you visit the site being monitored one more time unannounced, only to find the owner flushing some of the monitoring wells.
• Case 1009 – The Plagiarized Proposal  + You are requested to submit a proposal for a site investigation, and find later that a competitor has used the scope of work you developed to obtain the job for slightly less money.
• Case 1010 – What’s the Angle?  + While doing a structural survey for the owner of a building which is about to be sold, it is inadvertently discovered that a clip holding the granite facing in place is almost rusted through, but contract for the survey does not include evaluation of such items.
• Case 1011 – An Engineering Exercise  + You are contacted by a developer who wants you to step into a project in place of another engineer whose recommendations the developer does not like.
• Case 1012 – Priming the Town Pump  +, ** Pumps purchased and installed by a municipality against your better advice at the time have failed and your firm is now expected to stand behind the original decision of the municipality’s project manager.
• Case 1013 – Hearsay: What’s it Worth?  + While a subsurface investigation at the site of an alleged abandoned creosote plant shows no buried toxic materials, a chance remark in the coffee shop by a neighbor adjacent to the site indicates otherwise.
• Case 1014 – Water, Water Everywhere  + You are requested by a vice-president in your firm to make the results of a study for a public agency available to other interested private parties before the report is made public by the agency.
• Case 1015 – An Unsettling Situation  + Soils and foundations analyses indicate a proposed building complex will undergo excessive settlements unless supported on piles. The developer wants to use cheaper footings in hopes that detrimental effects will not occur during his ownership of the complex.
• Case 1016 – Now You Have It, Now You Don’t  + Your firm is selected for a municipal design project, however instead of awarding you the contract the city council politicians give the project to a firm with “connections.”
• Case 1017 – Paying Attention to the Details  +, ** You are asked to approve use of structural details which were designed for a different project by another firm without that firm’s knowledge or approval.
• Case 1018 – Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Will the Real Culprits Please Stand Up?  + The instructor in a graduate class discovers several students cheating on the final project, but is directed to be generous in grading the students since support for scholarships, assistantships, faculty salaries and research is dependent on keeping up the number of graduate students in the program.
• Case 1019 – It’s Just the Nearness of Who?  + A engineer employee under your supervision on a construction project develops an apparently very close relationship with the contractor’s daughter and it falls to you to handle the situation without creating obstacles to your rapid advancement in the company.
• Case 1020 – An Invitation You Can’t Refus e  + You are demanded to attend a mediation hearing and bring your company’s checkbook to remedy a problem which occurred during construction, even though your firm was not hired to inspect the work, and was not responsible for the problem taking place.
• Case 1021 – When in Rome…  +,** Due to a serious decline in your local project backlog, you decide to open a new office in a foreign country, with the aid of an “associate” in that country, in hopes of making a lot of money.
• Case 1022 – The Second Time Around  + You have an opportunity to use a specific construction technology developed for a previous client’s project on a new project for a different client, but need to assess what fee to charge for its use.
• Case 1023 – All Trussed Up and No Place to Go  +,** Your firm is on a professional team selected to design a major project, but when it comes time to perform the work, the prime designer elects to use their own in-house staff to do your scope of work for the project.
• Case 1024 – Santa in the Summer  + As a student engineer on a construction project, you happen to see several of the contractors placing items in the back of the resident engineer’s pickup at the end of work on Fridays.
• Case 1025 – Don’t Bank On It!  +,** Even though you recommend in writing that your client, a bank, obtain permission from the adjacent land owner to use his property for the installation of tiebacks for a retaining wall for a new building, your firm is included in a law suit when the bank neglects to contact the land owner for that permission.
• Case 1026 – Holey Smoke!!  +,** The report you are writing for the design of a proposed structure is due in a few days when you visit the site and discover the subsurface explorations for the project made by your staff either were made on the wrong site, or not at all!
• Case 1027 – One Good Turn Deserves Another  + Due to several requests from your client, a developer, you have provided additional services for a project but did not obtain authorization to charge for the additional effort involved. Now your accountant informs you that the budget for the project has been overrun. In addition your client has just called and wants you to submit a cost proposal for a new, but nearly identical, project.
• Case 1028 – Long Distance Operator(s)  + The Executive Secretary of your national professional organization has negotiated a deal with a long-distance telephone provider which will allow you to accumulate all long distance calls, charge them to respective projects and give you the option to add a surcharge in whatever percentage amount you choose.
• Case 1029 – Between A Buck and a Hired Place   The executive secretary of a Public Works department has worked above and beyond the requirements of her job for many years, but due to personal and health problems is no longer fulfilling her position responsibilities. The Director has been instructed to let her go, but he feels the department owes her some help, at least until she is eligible to collect her pension.
• Case 1030 – Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell   An engineer is designing an equalization tank for an “explosion proof” wastewater treatment plant. A fire code official states that the existing room is already explosion proof, but the engineer suspects the fire code official could be wrong.
• Case 1031 – Was That “Piracy” or “Privacy”?   A manager suspects that employees are using company email in inappropriate ways. The manager instructs the system engineer to give him access to all email files on company PCs. The system engineer feels this may be viewed as a breach of trust, and that employees may feel this is an intrusion of privacy.
• Case 1032 – Plains, Prairies and Porches   The City Engineer in a small town notices that a planned development may adversely affect several of the town’s poorer families. He realizes the economic benefits of progress, but he feels sympathy for the impacted community downstream. If the leaders of the anti-development faction somehow were to learn of the potential adverse secondary impacts, they could raise such a fuss that development would surely halt.
• Case 1033 – Ye Olde Water Main   A small town needs to replace its existing water main, but cannot raise the funds. The State Department of Transportation (DOT) is planning a highway reconstruction project in the town. Because of personal reasons, the DOT engineer would like to route the DOT project such that the state pays most of the replacement of the water main even though this would not be in keeping with DOT policy. The DOT engineer “pressures” his young engineer about to sit for the PE exam that she should change her design so that the old water main would be impacted.
• Case 1034 – A Fair Deal in Fairview?   A medium-sized city has established a Community Service Corporation (CSC) for the purpose of revitalizing the City’s downtown area. A principal in a local engineering firm was elected president of the city’s CSC, receiving no compensation for any of his services. Larger design firms are contacting smaller local consulting firms, including the CSC president’s firm, soliciting participation in the design work. Although the CSC President has transferred leadership of his firm to his son, the CSC president remains a principal stockholder. A competitor engineer has written letters to the editor of the local newspaper suggesting involvement in the projects by the firm headed by the son of the CSC president is a conflict of interest.
• Case 1035 – You Might Be a Redneck Engineer If…   A project engineer for a geotechnical consulting firm is retained to help with some soil testing before construction of a facility. The designer for the new facility has suggested that soil testing is necessary. Under pressure, the engineer briefly outlines the necessary testing and provides an estimated cost and the project is approved. After his testing and geotechnical report is submitted and the project proceeds, it becomes apparent that apart from his verbal earthwork recommendations, his geotechnical report has largely gone unused. A good ole’ boy design/construction team of questionable expertise designs and constructs the facility. The geotechnical engineer becomes concerned about potential liability that might come back on his firm if the buildings do not perform.
• Case 1036 (Part 1) – In-Line Engineering—A Study in Creative Corporate Financing   In-Line Engineering has been in business in the Midwestern United States for over 30 years, and the company’s owner, Sam Sliderule, P.E., wants to sell the business to his employees and gracefully retire. This is challenge enough, but to complicate matters, In-Line Engineering is now facing stiff competition from a new firm in town, FBN Engineering Services. In just a few short months, In-Line’s backlog of work has plummeted and it has become clear to Sam that unless he quickly sells out to one of FBN’s competitors, say, Nemesis Engineering, he will have to release all of In-Line’s employees and close the doors. Desperate to stave off financial ruin, Sam and one of his engineer employees draft a transition plan consisting of several components, all geared toward improving In-Line’s financial situation for the short term. Though Sam feels the plan might accomplish a buy-out by Nemesis, he is uncomfortable with parts of it. Sam has sought your opinion as to whether the various components of the plan are legal and ethical.
• Case 1036 (Part 2) – In-Line Engineering—A Study in Creative Corporate Financing   Part 1 of this case presented the full text of the case study and a summary of the results from an online opinion survey about Sam’s potential actions. Noting that differences exist in respondent opinion about the legality and ethicality of the various components of Sam’s transition plan, Part 2 further analyzes those differences. It also presents comments and observations about the case from survey respondents and from selected members of the Applied Ethics Case of the Month Board of Review.
• Case 1037 – What’s Love Got to Do with It?   You are a P.E. enlisted as an engineering consultant for a company which is the defendant in a legal dispute. After completing your evaluation you attend the deposition of an engineer offering testimony on behalf of the plaintiff. You later learn that this engineer is in a romantic relationship with the lead counsel for the plaintiff. You have also heard that an arrangement has been worked out between the plaintiff and the counsel such that the counsel will receive 40% or more of the award if the court finds the defendant at fault. What should you do?
•   Case 1038 – This Land is Your Land, It’s Right by My Land You are a licensed engineer who retains the services of a joint venture engineering-construction management firm to work on a subdivision with a high public profile. Despite an accelerated/high pressure timetable, things are moving along nicely until the joint venture firm notes that a second, previously unanticipated, access road will be needed for the sub-division. As you begin to work out the details of this new road, you discover that the principals of the joint venture firm own land along the proposed route of this new road. The value of this property will increase dramatically with the addition of the road. Is this important?
• Case 1039 – I’d Rather Be Fishing   A field technician, working for an environmental engineering firm, is sent out to conduct preliminary evaluation of a site. He takes samples from two drums on the property and calls his boss to give a preliminary report. The technician is confident, based on experience, that the contents of the drums are toxic and will thus require special disposal. However, his boss advises the technician to merely document the existence of the samples and nothing else. Several days later, the technician is in the area of the site and notices a truck and crew from a remediation firm (his former employer). The technician stops to talk to members of the crew. The technician learns that the remediation firm was told that the content of the drums had been tested and were shown to be clean. The technician is confident that not enough time has elapsed for a second set of samples to have been taken and tested. What should you do?
• Case 1040 – Design/Build a TE/STE Relationship   You are the principal of a design firm recently paired with an out-of-state construction firm to work on an intelligent design transportation system. You are unaccustomed to your current joint-venture design-build (D/B) contract. Historically you have been involved in design-bid-build (D/B/B) contracts in which you have a more direct relationship with the client. This unfamiliarity turns to discomfort when you learn of some of the field changes made by the principal of the construction firm. You think that the suggested changes, while economically advantageous to your partnership, represent a noteworthy compromise in quality. You are now torn between your financial/contractual obligations to your construction firm partner and your sense of obligation to inform the client of problematic ambiguities in the performance specs (given by the client) that allow for the use of such low quality parts. What should you do?
• Case 1041 – Engineering Ethics in Spain—The Risky Tank   A young engineer is assigned to a project that must be completed in less than a month. The final phase of the project requires completion of a concrete storage tank, but none of the workers have experience with concrete. Also, the workers are all in Spain illegally and have no medical/workers compensation coverage. The engineer’s attempts to increase safety measures on the project are met with resistance. The engineer will receive a permanent contract upon completion of the project. What should he do?
• Case 1042 – Roman Holiday   A recent graduate is hired by a general construction firm to oversee the construction of an office building. Design specs call for a protective coating to be applied to the building’s steel beams. The graduate observes that some beams are covered by walls before the coating is applied. The project superintendent informs the building inspector that the walled-in beams were coated and the inspector moves on. The graduate is concerned about this issue, but is told by the superintendent to leave the issue alone.

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Welcome to the case studies pages of the EPC’s Engineering Ethics toolkit, produced in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering. Click here for the toolkit homepage.

Case studies are one tool that can be used to address the context and impact of engineering ethics, and have been proven to be an effective teaching and learning method.

These case studies cover a variety of engineering disciplines, professional situations, and personal dilemmas and focuses on several areas of moral pedagogy. They were developed for use in higher education, but may also be of use in other settings.

To accommodate many educational levels, the case studies are divided between Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced cases. They are written in parts so that educators have the flexibility to use them as is best suited to their teaching content and environment, and all cases permit and encourage the integration of technical content. Along with learning and teaching notes, the cases contain suggested questions and activities as well as supplementary materials.

They are aligned to the Engineering Council and Royal Academy of Engineering’s Joint Statement of Ethical Principles and the expectations of the 4th Edition of the Engineering Council’s Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes and are therefore appropriate for UK teaching and learning contexts. They are, however, easily adapted for use in other countries.

Guidance articles are also available to help situate the case studies in an educational context and to signpost to additional research and resources on engineering ethics.

In developing the cases and articles in this resource, the authors and advisory group took into account recent scholarship on best practices in teaching engineering ethics through case studies. They also reviewed existing case study libraries in order to add to the growing body of material available on engineering ethics. 

Case studies

Most case studies are also available as PDF documents on the RAEng website.

To ensure that everyone can use and adapt these cases in a way that best fits their teaching or purpose, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .  Under this licence, you are free to share and adapt this material, under terms that you must give appropriate credit and attribution to the original material and indicate if any changes are made.

Get involved:  These case studies were created as part of the EPC’s Engineering Ethics toolkit that is intended to evolve and grow over time. Further case studies are being developed and will be added in due course, along with additional teaching resources to support individual case studies. We are actively inviting experts to submit case studies for review and possible inclusion in this toolkit. For more information, see our Get involved  page.

Emerging Technologies and Ethical Issues in Engineering: Papers from a Workshop (2004)

Chapter: state of the art in engineering ethics methodologies for case studies in engineering ethics, state of the art in engineering ethics.

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Methodologies for Case Studies in Engineering Ethics

CHARLES E. (ED) HARRIS

Texas A&M University

The methodology presented in this paper has two aspects: analytical and problem-resolution. The analytical aspect suggests concepts for identifying the types of issues in a case—factual issues, conceptual issues, application issues, and moral issues. The problem-resolution aspect involves “bottom-up” techniques and “top-down” techniques. Bottom-up techniques rely on moral intuitions rather than moral theories. These methods include weighing, casuistry, and finding a creative middle way. Top-down methods appeal to a general moral theory and are sometimes useful in applied ethics. Both methods are familiar in Western philosophy as utilitarianism and the ethics of respect for persons.

Most education in ethics and professional responsibility relies heavily on case studies. This is true of medical, legal, nursing, veterinary, dental, and business ethics. It is also true of engineering ethics. Students in my large classes in engineering ethics (approximately 600 each semester) often tell me that their favorite part of the course is the case studies, reflecting the practical orientation that characterizes all professionals. The ethical and professional concerns of people who defend clients in court, treat people who are sick, manage companies, fill teeth, operate on pets, and design bridges can best be addressed by way of cases that focus on activities relevant to their usual activities.

I find it useful to divide cases into three categories: micro-cases, macro-cases, and exemplary cases. Broadly defined, micro-cases are cases in which an individual professional makes decisions involving ethical or professional concerns. These decisions may have a limited impact or a wide-ranging impact. For example, John must decide whether he will accept a rather large gift from a

supplier. Alison must decide whether she is going to take part in a project that is environmentally destructive.

Macro-cases typically involve social policies, legislation, governmental administrative decisions, or the setting of policies for professional societies. In engineering, these policies usually have to do with the impact of technology on society. How should privacy be protected with respect to computers? How should computer crimes be treated? What kind of intellectual property rights should be granted to the creators of software? What policies should engineering societies adopt with respect to the environment? Should the cloning of human beings be pursued?

Exemplary cases involve situations in which professionals act in an admirable way in their professional capacities. Exemplary cases have two characteristics. First, decisions have already been made and a course of action already taken. In other words, no dilemma remains to be resolved. In exemplary cases, the dilemma has already been resolved in an exemplary way. Second, the behavior exhibited is praiseworthy, either because it is a paradigm of right action or because the action is taken in the face of adversity or because the action goes beyond what might be considered required under the circumstances. Exemplary cases can involve micro- or macro-issues.

Here is an example of a micro-case involving exemplary action. In the late 1930s, a group of General Electric engineers spent time outside their normal working hours to develop the sealed-beam headlight. Apparently, the prevailing consensus was that the headlight was not technically feasible. Nevertheless, the engineers accomplished their task. Sometimes, an engineer who simply performs what appears to be his or her professional duty can also exhibit exemplary action. Roger Boisjoly, an engineer who protested the launch of the Challenger at considerable risk to his career, exhibited exemplary action.

METHODS OF ANALYSIS

Methods of analysis can be used to identify the types of issues involved in a case: factual issues, conceptual issues, application issues, and moral issues.

Factual Issues

A factual issue has two characteristics: (1) it is a disagreement over a matter of fact, and (2) this matter of fact is crucial to resolving the problem. A fact, unlike a factual issue, is a matter that has already been settled and is uncontroversial. Factual issues arise, for example, in cases in which we do not know how much a certain modification in a design will cost or what the effects of a certain course of action will be or how accurate a given test is or what risks are involved in a certain technology.

In the real world, empirical research should be used to resolve a factual

issue. Some factual issues, however, cannot be resolved by investigation. Some technological questions cannot be answered, such as questions about consequences that can only be answered in the future. In these cases, the most realistic approach is to leave the factual question unanswered and make a decision in the context of factual uncertainty. Especially in the classroom, it is not appropriate to make assumptions that resolve an issue in a way that could not be done in a real-world context.

Here is a case involving a factual issue. A new law requires that the lead content of drinking water be less than 1.0 part per billion (ppb). Melissa is a safety engineer who has tested her company’s drinking water by two methods. Method A gives a reading of 0.85 ppb; Method B gives a reading of 1.23 ppb. She must fill out a government report describing the quality of her company’s water. If the lead content exceeds 1.0 ppb, her company will be fined. She must decide whether to report the results of Method A or Method B. In this case, her decision is based primarily on the factual issue of which method is the most accurate.

It is important to keep in mind that many controversies that appear to be about moral issues are traceable primarily to disagreements over facts. Two people may disagree about the proper course of action because they disagree about the consequences of a given course of action. Two engineers may disagree about which of two designs is ethically more acceptable because they disagree about which one is safer. They may agree on the moral parameters of the case, namely that the safest design should be chosen, but they may disagree over which design is safer. Although such a disagreement might be called a moral or ethical disagreement, it is really a disagreement over factual issues, unless they disagree over the definition of “safe.” Engineering students are often inclined to say that ethics are “soft” (in cases where a factual disagreement cannot be settled). It is important, therefore, to realize that sometimes, even though moral parameters may be agreed upon, there may be irresolvable disagreements over facts.

Conceptual Issues

A conceptual issue is (1) a disagreement over a definition of a concept that is (2) crucial to resolving a problem. Two engineers may differ over whether a design is safe because they have different definitions of (i.e., criteria for) “safe.” They may disagree about whether a given action is a conflict of interest because they may have different definitions of “conflict of interest.” They may disagree over whether something is a bribe because they have different conceptions of a bribe and how to distinguish one from extortion or “grease money.”

Here is an example of a case involving a conceptual issue. Sally is a mechanical engineer employed by General Motors to design automotive gas tanks. According to government safety standards, the automobile must be able to survive a “moderate impact” with no chance of the gas tank catching fire. In recent

tests, in cars that crashed at 35 miles per hour (mph) the gas tanks did not catch fire, whereas in 20 percent of cars that crashed at 45 mph they did. She knows she must first determine how the government defines “moderate impact.”

Probably the most effective way to come up with a definition is to derive one from paradigm, or standard, cases. A paradigm case of a bribe might be one in which an engineer accepts a large sum of money to specify a product that is not the most appropriate one for the design. From this standard case, we might derive a working definition of a bribe as an offer of something of value to induce a person to perform an action that is morally inappropriate to his or her office or role. If definitions differ, it may be possible to argue that one definition is more in accord with standard practice or paradigms or that one definition is more useful or easier to apply. If there are continuing differences over conceptual issues, the important thing is to be aware of the differences.

Another important consideration is whether a concept is “moralized” or “nonmoralized.” A moralized concept includes an implicit moral judgment that the action to which the concept refers is either morally acceptable or unacceptable. When we label something as a bribe, we make a presumptive judgment that it is wrong, because, as we have seen, we usually define bribery as giving something of value to induce a person to perform an action that is morally inappropriate to his or her office or role. Breaking confidentiality, for example, is prima facie morally wrong, because we define it as violating a commitment or breaking a rule that is morally justified.

Of course, the fact that an action is a bribe makes only a presumptive case that it is morally wrong. There might be a moral consideration that overrides the fact that we are giving a bribe. Bribing a Nazi guard to get your grandmother out of a concentration camp would be morally permissible, because the office of a concentration-camp guard is itself morally illegitimate. Breaking confidentiality is prima facie bad, but it may be justified when the safety of the public is at stake.

Some concepts, by contrast, appear to be morally neutral. We may call them nonmoralized concepts. In deciding whether computer software is a work of authorship (like a book) or an invention (like a machine), we must define “work of authorship” and “invention.” These definitions do not appear to involve moral judgments about the value of these two types of creative products.

Application Issues

An application issue is a question of whether or not a concept applies to a given situation. An application issue is (1) a disagreement over the application of a concept in a particular situation that is (2) crucial to resolving a problem. I just referred to the question of whether computer software should be classified as a work of authorship or an invention. This is an application issue, because the question is whether the concept of a work of authorship (once we have defined it) or the concept of invention (once we have defined it) best applies to software. Of

course, neither of these concepts applies particularly well, and this is characteristic of application issues. An application issue is one in which we have trouble deciding whether a concept applies in a given situation. We have no trouble deciding whether killing a person by stabbing him in the back to get his money is murder, but we do argue over whether euthanasia is murder. Similarly, engineers might argue over whether attending a conference in Hawaii sponsored by a vendor is a bribe, or whether giving one client general information about another client’s projects is a breach of confidentiality.

Here is an example of an application issue. Larry is an aerospace engineer who is a member of the Quaker religion, which is committed to nonviolence. Larry was hired by his firm to design passenger airplanes, but his boss has recently reassigned him to design military fighters. Larry must decide whether to accept the new assignment or quit and find a new job. He must decide whether his commitment to “nonviolence” requires not only that he refrain from operating military aircraft, but also that he refrain from designing them.

Application issues often arise in the law. The Constitution requires that citizens be given a “speedy” trial. If a citizen is kept in jail for two years without a trial, is this a denial of his constitutional right to a speedy trial? A city has a law against “vehicles” in the park, and a child rides a skateboard into the park. Is a skateboard a “vehicle”?

Moral Issues

A fourth type of issue is a genuine moral issue, usually a conflict between two or more values or obligations. Engineer Tom does not want to give the customs officer money, but he needs to get something through customs to complete a project that is important for the local economy as well as for his firm. Here Tom faces a conflict between his obligation not to pay bribes or grease money and his obligation to complete the project. Engineer Jane is not sure whether she should design a slightly safer product that will be considerably more expensive for consumers. Jane faces a conflict between her obligation to produce safe products and her obligation to produce inexpensive products.

Here is another example of a moral issue. Harry works for a large manufacturer in the town of Lake Pleasant. His company employs half of the people in the town, which is in an otherwise economically depressed part of the country. Harry discovers that his company is dumping chemicals into the local lake that may pose a health hazard. The lake is the town’s main source of drinking water. Harry is told that the company dumps these chemicals into the lake because disposing of them in any other way would be so expensive that the plant would have to close. Should Harry report his company’s practice to the local authorities? Harry faces a conflict between his obligation to the health of the citizens of Lake Pleasant and his obligation to the economic welfare of the citizens of Lake Pleasant.

BOTTOM-UP METHODS OF PROBLEM RESOLUTION

Sometimes moral conflicts remain even after all of the factual, conceptual, and application issues have been resolved. Therefore, we should consider some methods for resolving moral conflicts. Following a nomenclature often used in medical ethics, I find it useful to divide methods of resolving conflicts into bottom-up and top-down methods. Bottom-up methods start on a fairly concrete level, close to the details of the case, and work toward a solution. These methods adopt generally-accepted, intuitively plausible moral concepts that are a part of the moral thinking of most people, at least in our society. They work on what R.M. Hare, a prominent moral philosopher, would call the intuitive level of moral thinking (Hare, 1981).

Weighing or Balancing

The simplest bottom-up method might be called balancing or weighing. Reasons for alternative evaluations are considered, or “weighed,” and the alternative with the most convincing reasons is selected. We examine the reasons for and against universal engineering registration and, all things considered, find one set of reasons more convincing than the others. If we find the reasons on both sides equally convincing, either option is morally permissible.

Engineer Jane, who owns a civil engineering design firm, has a chance to bid on part of the design work for a fertilizer plant in Country X. The plant will increase food production in a country where many people do not have sufficient food. Unfortunately, the plant will have some bad environmental effects, and correcting the problems will make the fertilizer more expensive, too expensive for farmers in Country X. Should she bid on the design? She may decide to list considerations in favor of submitting a bid and considerations against it. On the one hand, she will be contributing to the saving of many lives, the economic development of Country X, and the economic advancement of her firm. On the other hand, she will be contributing to the environmental degradation of Country X, and her firm may receive some negative publicity. She must attempt to balance these two sets of considerations and determine which has the greater moral “weight.” Balancing does not provide specific directions for comparing alternative courses of action, but sometimes such direction is not necessary.

The Method of Casuistry or Line Drawing

The second method is casuistry, or what I call line drawing. Although the method I have developed for students is more formal than would ordinarily be used in real-world situations, I believe the underlying ideas are what we might call moral common sense. Casuistry has a long history in the moral tradition of the West, going back at least to Cicero. Recently, casuistry has been used to make

decisions in medical ethics. Congress established the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical Research in 1974. Deep religious and philosophical differences between members of the commission made progress difficult until the group decided to talk about specific examples of morally objectionable experiments (“paradigm cases”). The members found that they could agree on the characteristics (“features”) of these experiments that made the experiments wrong. Some members of the commission recognized that they were using the ancient technique of casuistry, and the method subsequently came to be accepted in medical ethics cases.

In casuistry, a decision about what to do or believe in a problematic situation is made by comparing the problematic situation with a clear situation. The comparison—reasoning by analogy—is made by comparing the features of the test case with the features of a “positive paradigm case” and a “negative paradigm case.” A feature is a characteristic that distinguishes a paradigm case from the test case, the subject of the analysis. A negative paradigm is a clear or uncontroversial example of an action that is wrong or morally impermissible; a positive paradigm is a clear and uncontroversial example of an action that is right or morally permissible.

Casuistry, or line drawing, can be used to resolve two distinct kinds of questions. First, it can be used to resolve an application issue, for example, to determine whether an action really constitutes a bribe. Second, it can be used to resolve a moral issue, for example, once we have determined that an offer really is (or is not) a bribe, whether or not we should accept it or offer it. Of course, in most circumstances, a bribe should not be accepted or offered, but offering or accepting a bribe might be justifiable in a few cases. To cite an earlier example, during World War II, if I could have bribed a Nazi guard to get my grandmother out of a concentration camp, I might decide that offering a bribe is justifiable.

The following example illustrates how casuistry can be used to settle an application issue and to settle a moral issue. Denise is an engineer at a large construction firm. Her job requires that she specify rivets for the construction of a large apartment building. She has the power to make the decision by herself. After some research and testing, she decides to use ACME rivets for the job, because, indeed, they are the best product. The day after she orders the rivets, an ACME representative visits her and gives her a voucher for an all-expense paid trip to the ACME Technical Forum in Jamaica. The voucher is worth $5,000, and the four-day trip will include 18 hours of classroom instruction, time in the evening for sightseeing, and a day-long tour of the coastline. The time will be roughly divided between education and pleasure. Does this trip constitute a bribe? A line-drawing analysis might look like Table 1 .

In a line-drawing analysis, one must decide not only where to place the “x’s” on the spectrum, but also how much “weight” or importance to give each “x.” Some features may be more important than others. For example, one might decide that because the offer was made after the decision to buy ACME rivets the

TABLE 1 Line-Drawing Analysis for Resolving an Application Issue

gift cannot be considered a bribe. It may be a bribe, however, to other engineers, who may believe that buying ACME products results in offers of nice trips. However, to Denise it is certainly not a paradigm bribe.

Line-drawing analysis can also be used to determine whether Denise should take the trip. Even if she decides the trip is not a bribe, she might still decide not to accept the offer. The features important to this decision may be different from the ones in the first analysis, although there may be some overlap. In the second analysis, it will be important to consider the influence of the gift on future decisions by Denise and other engineers, the company policy on accepting gifts, and the appearance of bribery if the gift is accepted. Some features from the first analysis, such as the educational value of the technical forum, would be relevant here too. Table 2 is a line-drawing analysis to resolve the moral question of whether Denise should accept the offer.

According to the analysis in Table 2 , the issue is not clear. However, the problems associated with accepting the gift are serious enough that Denise probably should not accept it. In the next section, I shall suggest conditions under which accepting the gift would probably be morally permissible.

TABLE 2 Line-Drawing Analysis for Resolving a Moral Issue

But first, here are some concluding thoughts about the method of casuistry. In general, the more features that are included in an analysis, the better. For the sake of simplicity, I used only four or five, but the more features you include, the more helpful and accurate the analysis becomes.

Casuistry is an inherently conservative method. In arriving at paradigm cases for comparison with test cases, we assume that our intuitive, common sense moral judgments are correct. This assumption is usually valid, but not always, particularly in areas where morality is changing or when the case involves a novel experience. It might be difficult to find uncontroversial paradigm cases for some issues in environmental ethics, for example.

For casuistry to work well in the context of a profession, the professional community must agree on paradigms of acceptable and unacceptable practice. Engineers must agree on paradigmatic examples of acceptable and unacceptable practice with respect to conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and other issues. In the area of medical ethics, for example, there is now widespread agreement about whether actions taken in certain publicized cases were moral or not. These agreed-upon bench marks can then be compared to more controversial cases. I believe there has been less discussion of bench mark cases in engineering.

Creative Middle Ways

A third method of resolving a problem is finding a creative middle way. Suppose there is a conflict between two or more legitimate moral obligations and that two of them appear to be at loggerheads. Sometimes by creative thinking, it is possible to find a course of action that satisfies both, although perhaps not in the way that was originally supposed. For example, a plant might be emitting some dangerous pollutants that are environmentally harmful, but completely eliminating them would be so expensive that the plant would have to close, throwing many local inhabitants out of work. Assuming there is an obligation both to preserve jobs and to protect the environment, a creative middle way might be to eliminate the worst pollutants and forego a complete cleanup until more economical means of doing so can be found. This alternative would be particularly attractive if the remaining pollutants would not cause irreversible damage to the environment or to human health.

This solution, and most creative middle-way solutions, involves compromise. Environmentalists might not be completely satisfied with this solution because not all of the pollutants will be removed. Plant managers might not be completely satisfied because the solution will still involve considerable expenditures for pollution control. Nevertheless, environmentalists will accomplish something, and the plant owners can remain in the town and even build up a considerable amount of public good will.

In the line-drawing analysis presented in the previous section, there might also be a creative middle way. Suppose we take the two competing values: (1) the

educational and recreational value of the trip; and (2) avoiding the appearance of bribery and undue influence on professional judgment. Denise’s manager might suggest: (1) that she take the trip but that the company pay her expenses; and (2) that engineers who were not involved in the decision also be allowed to take the trip. Furthermore, it must be understood that company engineers will be allowed to attend the forum, at the company’s expense, whether or not the company buys ACME products. This arrangement would only make sense, of course, if the forum is of very great technical value. This solution would allow Denise to honor competing obligations in a creative way.

Two limitations of this method come to mind. First, sometimes there is no creative middle way, even if it is desirable. In the example cited above, all of the pollutants may be so damaging to the environment that no half-way measures will work. Furthermore, there might not be a way to do the cleanup more economically. In that case, the plant might just have to close. In the line-drawing example, Denise’s company might not be able to pay her expenses. A second limitation is that sometimes the creative middle way is not morally appropriate. Sometimes one of the options is so morally repugnant that we must choose the other one. Still, a creative middle way is often a good solution to a complex, practical moral problem.

TOP-DOWN METHODS OF RESOLUTION

In some cases, the appeal to moral common sense may not be sufficient. In those cases, it may be useful to appeal to more fundamental moral ideas, such as those developed in philosophical theories. Although the role of moral theory in applied or practical ethics is controversial, I believe moral theorists have attempted to find fundamental moral ideals that can generate or explain all or most of our common-sense moral ideas. This goal has been only partially achieved, because there are at least two prevalent moral theories today, and neither one can explain the fundamental ideas of common morality in a completely satisfactory way. These two theories are utilitarianism, usually associated with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and the ethics of respect for persons, usually associated with Immanuel Kant. The main idea behind utilitarianism is to maximize overall human well-being; and the main idea behind the ethics of respect for persons is to respect the rights and moral agency of individuals.

Although the existence of two theories rather than one may be an embarrassment to theorists, practical ethicists can take a more positive attitude because the conflict between the ideas behind these two theories often arise in real-world moral controversies. Common morality, at least in the West, may not be a seamless web. In fact, it may be composed of two strands: (1) considerations having to do with utility, or the well-being of the greatest number of people; and (2) considerations having to do with justice and the rights of individuals.

An understanding of moral theory could serve several functions in practical

ethics. First, the two perspectives can often be helpful for identifying and sorting out different types of arguments and for recognizing that different types of arguments have deep moral roots. In arguments for and against strict protections for intellectual property, for example, knowing that some arguments are utilitarian can be helpful. From the utilitarian perspective, protecting intellectual property promotes the flourishing of technology and, thereby, the good of society. Utilitarian arguments can also be made that strong protections for intellectual property limit the sharing of new ideas in technology and are thereby detrimental to the general good. Arguments from the respect-for-persons perspective often focus on the individual’s right to control, and reap the profits from, the fruits of his or her own labor, regardless of the impact on the larger society.

Second, understanding these fundamental, yet divergent, moral perspectives often enables an ethicist to anticipate a moral argument. Just thinking about the two theories and the kinds of arguments they would support could have led one to expect that some arguments regarding intellectual property would take the utilitarian approach and others would take the rights-of-ownership approach.

Third, familiarity with these two perspectives can sometimes help in determining whether there has been closure on a moral issue. If arguments from both perspectives lead to the same conclusions, we can be pretty confident that we have arrived at the right answer. If the arguments lead to different conclusions, the discussion is likely to continue. When different conclusions are reached, there is no algorithm, unfortunately, for deciding which moral perspective should prevail. In general, however, the Western emphasis on individual rights and respect for persons takes priority, unless harm to individuals is slight and the utility to society is very great. With these considerations in mind, we can now look at the two moral theories.

The Ethics of Utilitarianism

A principle of utilitarianism is that the right action will have the best consequences, and the best consequences are those that lead to the greatest happiness or well-being of everyone affected by the action. Consider the following case. Kevin is the engineering manager for the county road commission. He must decide what to do about Forest Drive, a local, narrow, two-lane road. Every year for the past seven years, at least one person has crashed a car into trees close to the road and been killed. Many other accidents have also occurred, causing serious injuries, wrecked cars, and damaged trees. Kevin is considering widening the road, which would require that 30 trees be cut down. Kevin is already receiving protests from local citizens who want to protect the beauty and ecological integrity of the area. Should Kevin widen the road?

In this case, the conflicting values are public health and safety on the one hand and the beauty and ecological integrity of the area on the other. Let us suppose that widening the road will save one life and prevent two serious injuries

and five minor injuries a year. Not widening the road will preserve the beauty and ecological integrity of the area. Even though the preservation will increase the happiness of many people, the deaths and injuries are far more serious negative consequences for those who experience them. Therefore, the greatest total utility is probably served by widening the road.

Cost/benefit analysis is a form of utilitarianism. I sometimes refer to it as “utilitarianism with the numbers.” Instead of maximizing happiness, the focus is on balancing costs and benefits, both measured in money, and selecting the option that leads to the greatest net benefit, also measured in money. Consider an earlier case. ACME manufacturing has a plant in the small town of Springfield that employs about 10 percent of the community. As a consequence of some of its manufacturing procedures, the ACME plant releases bad-smelling fumes that annoy its neighbors, damage the local tourism trade, and have been linked to an increase in asthma in the area. The town of Springfield is considering issuing an ultimatum to ACME to clean up the plant or pay a million-dollar fine. ACME has responded that it will close the plant rather than pay the fine. What should Springfield do?

A cost/benefit analysis might show the costs of and benefits of not levying the fine and keeping the plant open ( Table 3 ) and or levying the fine and losing the plant ( Table 4 ).

According to these analyses, the economic consequences of fining ACME would be much greater than the consequences of not fining ACME. Thus, the fine should not be levied.

There are two major problems with utilitarianism. One is that an accurate analysis requires a lot of factual information. This is especially evident in the cost/benefit analyses above. One must know the amounts to assign to the various costs and benefits. Even in an analysis that is not done in the cost/benefit way, the consequences of various courses of action must be known before the course of action that will have the greatest overall utility can be known. A second problem

TABLE 3 Cost/Benefit Analysis of Not Levying the Fine

TABLE 4 Cost/Benefit Analysis of Levying the Fine

is that a utilitarian analysis can sometimes justify unjust consequences. For example, a decision not to force the plant to stop polluting will result in some people getting sick, even though overall utility will be maximized. These problems suggest that a complete analysis should include the ethics-of-respect principle.

The Ethics of Respect for Persons

From the utilitarian point of view, harm to one person can be justified by a bigger benefit to someone else. In the ethics of respect for persons, there are some things you may not do to a person, even for the benefit of others. The fundamental idea in the ethics of respect for persons is that you must respect each person as a free and equal moral agent—that is, as a person who has goals and values and a right to pursue those values as long as he or she does not violate the similar rights of others.

As this formulation suggests, the ethics of respect for persons emphasizes the rights of individuals, which are formulated, among other places, in various United Nations documents. Individual rights include the right to life and to the security of one’s person, the right not to be held in slavery, the right to freedom of thought and expression, and so forth. The problem with this formulation is that it does not give any clear indication of which rights are most important. When rights conflict, it is important to know which ones are most important.

Alan Gewirth, a contemporary philosopher, has suggested that there are three levels of rights (Gewirth, 1978). Level I, the most important rights, includes the right to life, the right to bodily integrity, and the right to mental integrity. I would add to those the right to free and informed consent to actions that affect one. Level II includes the right not to be deceived, cheated, robbed, defamed, or lied to. It also includes the right to free speech. Level III includes the right to acquire property and the right to be free of discrimination. For Gewirth, Level I rights are the fundamental rights necessary for effective moral agency. Level II

rights are necessary to preserving one’s moral agency. Level III rights are necessary to increasing one’s level of effective moral agency. Whether or not one accepts this arrangement, most of us would probably recognize that some rights are more important than others.

Consider the following case. Karen, who has been working as a design engineer under Andy, has learned that he is about to be offered a job as head safety inspector for all of the oil rigs the company owns in the region. Karen worries that Andy’s drinking may affect his ability to perform his new job and thereby endanger workers on the oil rigs. She asks Andy to turn down the new assignment, but he refuses. Should Karen take her concerns to management? In this case, Andy’s right to advance his career (by trying to acquire property), which is a Level III right, conflicts with the workers’ rights to life and bodily integrity, which are Level I rights. In this conflict, the rights of the workers are more important, and Karen should take her concern to management.

In arbitrating conflicts between rights, two additional issues should be kept in mind. First, there is a distinction between violating and infringing a right. A right is violated if it is denied entirely. I violate your right to life if I kill you. A right is infringed if it is limited or diminished in some way. A plant infringes on my right to life if it emits a pollutant that increases my risk of dying of cancer. Second, rights can be forfeited by violating or perhaps infringing on the rights of others. I may forfeit my right to life if I kill someone else. I may forfeit some right (perhaps the right to free movement) if I steal from others and thus infringe on or violate their right not to be robbed.

Finally, the Golden Rule is also a principle associated with the ethics of respect for persons. Most cultures have a version of the Golden Rule. The Christian version requires that we treat others as we would have them treat us. In the Islamic version, no man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. If we consider ourselves to be moral agents, the Golden Rule requires that we treat others as moral agents as well.

There are two primary problems with the ethics of respect for persons. First, the rights test and the Golden Rule are sometimes difficult to apply. We must determine when there is a conflict of rights, which rights are most important, and whether rights have been violated or merely infringed upon. With the Golden Rule, we must assume that others have the same values we do. If they do not, treating them as we would wish to be treated may be unfair. Second, it may be justifiable at times to allow considerations of utility to override considerations of the ethics of respect for persons, especially if the infringements of rights are relatively minor and the benefit to the general welfare is great.

I have presented a number of tools for analyzing and resolving ethical problems. The important thing to keep in mind, however, is that these tools cannot be

used in a mechanical way. They are not algorithms. One must decide if the issue to be resolved is really factual or conceptual, for example. One must also decide when the line-drawing method or finding a creative middle way is most appropriate and when an issue can best be approached as a conflict between general human welfare (utility) and the rights of individuals (the ethics of respect for persons). When there is such a conflict, there is no mechanical way to determine which perspective should be considered most important. In the West, we accord great importance to individual rights, but they do not always take precedence. The techniques and methods I have described are helpful for thinking about ethical issues, but they are no substitute for moral insight and moral wisdom.

Gewirth, A. 1978. Reason and Morality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hare, R.M. 1981. Moral Thinking: Its Levels, Method, and Point. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.

Engineers and ethicists participated in a workshop to discuss the responsible development of new technologies. Presenters examined four areas of engineering—sustainability, nanotechnology, neurotechnology, and energy—in terms of the ethical issues they present to engineers in particular and society as a whole. Approaches to ethical issues include: analyzing the factual, conceptual, application, and moral aspects of an issue; evaluating the risks and responsibilities of a particular course of action; and using theories of ethics or codes of ethics developed by engineering societies as a basis for decision making. Ethics can be built into the education of engineering students and professionals, either as an aspect of courses already being taught or as a component of engineering projects to be examined along with research findings. Engineering practice workshops can also be effective, particularly when they include discussions with experienced engineers. This volume includes papers on all of these topics by experts in many fields. The consensus among workshop participants is that material on ethics should be an ongoing part of engineering education and engineering practice.

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Case Studies for Engineering Ethics Across the Product Life Cycle

This activity is considered an NAE Exemplar in Engineering Ethics Education and was included in a 2016 report with other exemplary activities. This activity uses reviewed case studies and life cycle assessment tools to help students develop needed ethical decision-making skills. 

Exemplary features: Adaptability for use in secondary education; extensive collection of cases on the ethics of lifecycle impacts and sustainability

Why it’s exemplary: Real-world engineering decision making involves multiple actors and, for each, ethical considerations may arise at multiple levels—personal, professional, societal, or global. Our program of case studies and educational materials is exemplary in its interdisciplinary foundation, created collectively by engineers, policy experts, business professionals, and ethicists to provide clear examples for rising engineers to appreciate ethical issues from multiple angles. Accompanying materials are rigorously assessed in the classroom by internal and external evaluators based on national educational goals and guidelines, with versions developed to suit a variety of instructional modes. Full cases are designed for university engineering students, while streamlined versions for secondary schools spread an awareness of lifecycle issues and environmental ethics early in formal education. Widespread dissemination using various media adds to national infrastructure for ethics education in engineering and environmental fields, with the goal of emphasizing societal ethics and indirect effects.

Program description: A central goal of engineering education is to provide students with an understanding of context for their designs and decisions. A common theme currently relates to the environment and public health, specifically what constitutes a fair distribution of emissions or impacts, who or what has value, and what exactly gets counted in an engineering analysis of benefits and costs. These questions can be quite effectively discussed in the context of lifecycle engineering, a design strategy that uses a “cradle-to-grave” approach to evaluate environmental and social impacts, incorporating material, energy, and economic flows as well as social and biological effects at different stages. While the use of lifecycle engineering and lifecycle assessment (LCA) tools is widespread, the modeling structure and interpretation of results involve ethical and value judgments that must be navigated carefully by the analyst and by the receiver of the results.

LCA is increasingly important in corporate and government decision making, yet there is a dearth of materials specifically designed to integrate ethics education into life cycle–oriented coursework. Our ethics education project centers on the integration of life cycle–oriented case studies in design, engineering, management, and public policy fields. Case studies are effective pedagogical tools, and particularly useful in enabling students to develop practical understanding of the ethical challenges they will face as practicing professionals by placing them in mock decision-making roles. We have conducted a thorough review of nearly 1,000 existing case studies from engineering, business, and public policy to determine common topics and themes that relate to product life cycles and environmental and health impacts. Our case studies cover current events and engineering design decisions that involve balancing local or direct effects with larger, indirect effects on society, including (a) mismanagement of industrial waste and ecological impacts from industrial accidents, specifically the inundation of several villages in Hungary from a large-volume spill of red mud, a byproduct of aluminum production (production stage); (b) the upstream implication of material selection for consumer electronics, specifically the tradeoffs between Au-coated antennas and GaIn liquid metal reconfigurable antennas, a new technology being piloted by handset manufacturers (design stage); (c) implementation of state-level policy around compact fluorescent bulbs, balancing state targets for energy efficiency, indirect emissions as a result of reducing electricity demand, and direct potential emissions of Hg during lamp breakage, both accidental and intentional (use and disposal stages); and (d) whether federal/state agencies could and should require labelling of nanomaterials in consumer products, drawing parallels with labelling efforts for pharmaceuticals and food (use and disposal stages).

Following typical case study methods, students are presented with an engineering or design decision that they need to make, accompanied by background material that provides technical, environmental, and policy context. An accompanying teaching note guides instructors with ideas for classroom instruction, emphasizing the ethical concepts that are relevant to the case and written with proper terminology in collaboration with the Ethics Institute at Northeastern and assessed by an external evaluator. Instructional materials and video footage presenting each case, as well as shorter versions for younger audiences, are being created and will be hosted at the Ethics Institute as an additional teaching resource. The creation of the case studies involved a multidisciplinary collaboration among faculty members as well as graduate students. Undergraduate students and high school teachers are assisting in the creation of versions appropriate for secondary schools. These cases have been designed as one-week modules to be incorporated in existing courses and ethics workshops.

The educational goals of this project are to:

(1) Create engaging, practical, and effective case study and workshop materials that examine ethical dimensions of LCA practice and communication, for use in courses in engineering, management, and social science;

(2) Evaluate the effectiveness of these materials through robust educational assessment while improving student learning; and

(3) Engage other secondary school and college/university instructors through demonstration and provision of instructional guides and resources to accompany the case study and workshop materials.

The overall purpose of the project is to enable engineering students and the general public to have an understanding and meaningful discussions of indirect impacts of their activities, and how to balance direct benefits and indirect impacts. Our life cycle–oriented, case-based approach to engineering ethics education will fill gaps in case study resources by addressing fundamental ethical principles and macro-ethical issues on sustainability topics, developing novel, robustly assessed educational materials where few currently exist.

Assessment information: Our case studies and workshops are being piloted in engineering, business, and public policy classrooms. We have also been working with the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning through Research at Northeastern and our external assessment advisor, Dr. Michael Loui, to develop assessment instruments and evaluation schemes that can be used across all of the cases. We now have a scheme that covers the common ethical concepts introduced in the cases—distributive justice, weighting/balancing risks, moral status, the precautionary principle, responsibility to report, and exploitation. The evaluation scheme is based on the framework presented by the Ethical Reasoning Value rubric published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and will be applied to five separate classes of students over the coming year in order to test learning outcomes. This project grew out of the team’s experience with trying to fit existing engineering ethics cases into a life cycle–based framework. To provide a baseline for evaluating the new case studies, a review of learning assessments was carried out in spring 2015 for a mechanical/industrial engineering course, which currently uses a case study–based ethics module about the Bhopal chemical disaster, and retrospectively for the 150+ students who have passed through the course over the past several years. Review of assignments and responses informed the creation of case study teaching notes and the draft evaluation scheme. Continuing assessment will allow the project team to adjust the cases and teaching materials as necessary and add further instructional guidance where learning objectives are not being met.

Additional resources:

• Devising State Policy on Compact Fluorescent Lamps:  https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/devising-state-policy-on-compact-fluorescent-lamps-case.pdf

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2055332. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Engineering Ethics: Real World Case Studies

Author: Starrett, Steven K.; Lara, Amy L.; Bertha, Carlos

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Starrett, Steven K.; Lara, Amy L.; Bertha, Carlos

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Provides in-depth analysis with extended discussions and study questions of case studies that are based on real work situations., additional information, related resources & events, whistleblowing.

Provides an overview of whistleblowing and how to raise a concern.

Guidance on ethics

All members of the Institution of Structural Engineers should subscribe to the Statement of Ethical Principles.

In conversation with Gold Medallists: inspiring action

IStructE President Tanya de Hoog talks with celebrated engineers Paul Fast and Chris Wise about how they embed people and planet at the heart of their work.

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The following constitute all published opinions of the NSPE Board of Ethical Review. Opinions issued by the NSPE Board of Ethical review prior to 1980 are provided solely for historic purposes and may no longer be valid because of changes to the NSPE Code of Ethics as well as legal and regulatory requirements.

NSPE Code of Ethics:

Engineering is an important and learned profession. As members of this profession, engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity. Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare. Engineers must perform under a standard of professional behavior that requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct.

Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:

Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

Perform services only in areas of their competence.

Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.

Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.

Avoid deceptive acts.

Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession.

Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

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.

Engineers shall approve only those engineering documents that are in conformity with applicable standards.

Engineers shall not reveal facts, data, or information without the prior consent of the client or employer except as authorized or required by law or this Code.

Engineers shall not permit the use of their name or associate in business ventures with any person or firm that they believe is engaged in fraudulent or dishonest enterprise.

Engineers shall not aid or abet the unlawful practice of engineering by a person or firm.

Engineers having knowledge of any alleged violation of this Code shall report thereon to appropriate professional bodies and, when relevant, also to public authorities, and cooperate with the proper authorities in furnishing such information or assistance as may be required.

Engineers shall perform services only in the areas of their competence.

Engineers shall undertake assignments only when qualified by education or experience in the specific technical fields involved.

Engineers shall not affix their signatures to any plans or documents dealing with subject matter in which they lack competence, nor to any plan or document not prepared under their direction and control.

Engineers may accept assignments and assume responsibility for coordination of an entire project and sign and seal the engineering documents for the entire project, provided that each technical segment is signed and sealed only by the qualified engineers who prepared the segment.

Engineers shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.

Engineers shall be objective and truthful in professional reports, statements, or testimony. They shall include all relevant and pertinent information in such reports, statements, or testimony, which should bear the date indicating when it was current.

Engineers may express publicly technical opinions that are founded upon knowledge of the facts and competence in the subject matter.

Engineers shall issue no statements, criticisms, or arguments on technical matters that are inspired or paid for by interested parties, unless they have prefaced their comments by explicitly identifying the interested parties on whose behalf they are speaking, and by revealing the existence of any interest the engineers may have in the matters.

Engineers shall act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.

Engineers shall disclose all known or potential conflicts of interest that could influence or appear to influence their judgment or the quality of their services.

Engineers shall not accept compensation, financial or otherwise, from more than one party for services on the same project, or for services pertaining to the same project, unless the circumstances are fully disclosed and agreed to by all interested parties.

Engineers shall not solicit or accept financial or other valuable consideration, directly or indirectly, from outside agents in connection with the work for which they are responsible.

Engineers in public service as members, advisors, or employees of a governmental or quasi-governmental body or department shall not participate in decisions with respect to services solicited or provided by them or their organizations in private or public engineering practice.

Engineers shall not solicit or accept a contract from a governmental body on which a principal or officer of their organization serves as a member.

Engineers shall avoid deceptive acts.

Engineers shall not falsify their qualifications or permit misrepresentation of their or their associates' qualifications. They shall not misrepresent or exaggerate their responsibility in or for the subject matter of prior assignments. Brochures or other presentations incident to the solicitation of employment shall not misrepresent pertinent facts concerning employers, employees, associates, joint venturers, or past accomplishments.

Engineers shall not offer, give, solicit, or receive, either directly or indirectly, any contribution to influence the award of a contract by public authority, or which may be reasonably construed by the public as having the effect or intent of influencing the awarding of a contract. They shall not offer any gift or other valuable consideration in order to secure work. They shall not pay a commission, percentage, or brokerage fee in order to secure work, except to a bona fide employee or bona fide established commercial or marketing agencies retained by them.

Engineers shall be guided in all their relations by the highest standards of honesty and integrity.

Engineers shall acknowledge their errors and shall not distort or alter the facts.

Engineers shall advise their clients or employers when they believe a project will not be successful.

Engineers shall not accept outside employment to the detriment of their regular work or interest. Before accepting any outside engineering employment, they will notify their employers.

Engineers shall not attempt to attract an engineer from another employer by false or misleading pretenses.

Engineers shall not promote their own interest at the expense of the dignity and integrity of the profession.

Engineers shall treat all persons with dignity, respect, fairness and without discrimination.

Engineers shall at all times strive to serve the public interest.

Engineers are encouraged to participate in civic affairs; career guidance for youths; and work for the advancement of the safety, health, and well-being of their community.

Engineers shall not complete, sign, or seal plans and/or specifications that are not in conformity with applicable engineering standards. If the client or employer insists on such unprofessional conduct, they shall notify the proper authorities and withdraw from further service on the project.

Engineers are encouraged to extend public knowledge and appreciation of engineering and its achievements.

Engineers are encouraged to adhere to the principles of sustainable development 1 in order to protect the environment for future generations. Footnote 1 "Sustainable development" is the challenge of meeting human needs for natural resources, industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and effective waste management while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the natural resource base essential for future development.

Engineers shall continue their professional development throughout their careers and should keep current in their specialty fields by engaging in professional practice, participating in continuing education courses, reading in the technical literature, and attending professional meetings and seminars.

Engineers shall avoid all conduct or practice that deceives the public.

Engineers shall avoid the use of statements containing a material misrepresentation of fact or omitting a material fact.

Consistent with the foregoing, engineers may advertise for recruitment of personnel.

Consistent with the foregoing, engineers may prepare articles for the lay or technical press, but such articles shall not imply credit to the author for work performed by others.

Engineers shall not disclose, without consent, confidential information concerning the business affairs or technical processes of any present or former client or employer, or public body on which they serve.

Engineers shall not, without the consent of all interested parties, promote or arrange for new employment or practice in connection with a specific project for which the engineer has gained particular and specialized knowledge.

Engineers shall not, without the consent of all interested parties, participate in or represent an adversary interest in connection with a specific project or proceeding in which the engineer has gained particular specialized knowledge on behalf of a former client or employer.

Engineers shall not be influenced in their professional duties by conflicting interests.

Engineers shall not accept financial or other considerations, including free engineering designs, from material or equipment suppliers for specifying their product.

Engineers shall not accept commissions or allowances, directly or indirectly, from contractors or other parties dealing with clients or employers of the engineer in connection with work for which the engineer is responsible.

Engineers shall not attempt to obtain employment or advancement or professional engagements by untruthfully criticizing other engineers, or by other improper or questionable methods.

Engineers shall not request, propose, or accept a commission on a contingent basis under circumstances in which their judgment may be compromised.

Engineers in salaried positions shall accept part-time engineering work only to the extent consistent with policies of the employer and in accordance with ethical considerations.

Engineers shall not, without consent, use equipment, supplies, laboratory, or office facilities of an employer to carry on outside private practice.

Engineers shall not attempt to injure, maliciously or falsely, directly or indirectly, the professional reputation, prospects, practice, or employment of other engineers. Engineers who believe others are guilty of unethical or illegal practice shall present such information to the proper authority for action.

Engineers in private practice shall not review the work of another engineer for the same client, except with the knowledge of such engineer, or unless the connection of such engineer with the work has been terminated.

Engineers in governmental, industrial, or educational employ are entitled to review and evaluate the work of other engineers when so required by their employment duties.

Engineers in sales or industrial employ are entitled to make engineering comparisons of represented products with products of other suppliers.

Engineers shall accept personal responsibility for their professional activities, provided, however, that engineers may seek indemnification for services arising out of their practice for other than gross negligence, where the engineer's interests cannot otherwise be protected.

Engineers shall conform with state registration laws in the practice of engineering.

Engineers shall not use association with a nonengineer, a corporation, or partnership as a "cloak" for unethical acts.

Engineers shall give credit for engineering work to those to whom credit is due, and will recognize the proprietary interests of others.

Engineers shall, whenever possible, name the person or persons who may be individually responsible for designs, inventions, writings, or other accomplishments.

Engineers using designs supplied by a client recognize that the designs remain the property of the client and may not be duplicated by the engineer for others without express permission.

Engineers, before undertaking work for others in connection with which the engineer may make improvements, plans, designs, inventions, or other records that may justify copyrights or patents, should enter into a positive agreement regarding ownership.

Engineers' designs, data, records, and notes referring exclusively to an employer's work are the employer's property. The employer should indemnify the engineer for use of the information for any purpose other than the original purpose.

Engineering Ethics

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Cases Available Online

• Cases on Engineering Practice Cases from the Online Ethics Center for Science and Engineering
• National Society of Professional Engineers Search the archive of case studies brought before the NSPE's Board of Ethical Review. Cases run from 1959 to 2006.
• Engineering Ethics Cases from Texas A & M University Though the design of this website is a bit dated, this is an extremely good collection of famous case studies maintained by Texas A&M University's Murdoch Center for Engineering.
• Engineering.com Ethics Cases A collection of eighteen famous case studies which include a time line of events, a detailed examination of the incident, and oftentimes a bibliography for further investigation.
• Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases Cases from the first edition of the book, "Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases by Charles Harris. Listed by name, engineering specialty, and a taxonomy of cases by subject dealt with.
• Engineering Disasters and Learning from Failure A collection of cases on famous engineering failures maintained by the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of New York, Stony Brook.
• Ethics Education Library - Engineering Cases A collection of over 500 cases on various aspects engineering ethics. Searchable by topic and keyword.

Books Containing Cases

• Engineering Ethics: Concepts, Viewpoints, Cases and Codes by Jimmy Smith, Patricia Harper, and Richard Burgess Call Number: CSEP.TA157.E54x2008 Along with a number of seminal readings on engineering ethics, this book includes a large collection of codes of ethics and case studies.

Engineering Ethics Films

• Incident at Morales Call Number: DVD.CSEP.TA157.I53x2003 Incident at Morales involves a variety of ethical issues faced by a company that wants to quickly build a plant in order to develop a new chemical product to gain a competitive edge over the competition
• Gilbane Gold by National Institute for Engineering Ethics Call Number: Available at the Ethics Center Library Publication Date: http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases/22240.aspx Available at the CSEP Library, this video is the fictional story of a chemical company The city of Gilbane has implemented a plan where the sewage of the city is processed and sold as fertilizer to local farmers, a product locally known as Gilbane Gold. The fertilizer project creates a sizable revenue for the city, who has also sought to make itself attractive to business through numerous tax incentives. Not long ago, the city has put in place stringent regulations on the amount of heavy metals manufacturing plants located in Gilbane discharge into the city's sewage. Z Corp, a company in Gilbane, has been releasing a higher level of heavy metals into the city's sewage than allowed. As a new employee, should the engineer David Jackson tell the city about this fact? Below URL is a link to a summary of the film, and discussion questions. The link goes to a teaching guide that describes the film in more detail.
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• Last Updated: Jun 17, 2024 11:19 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.iit.edu/engineeringethics

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Should a production engineer prioritize a customer's desires over safety?

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