gC A S E S

CASE 1

Aberdeen Three
The Aberdeen Proving Ground is a U.S. Army facility and Robert Lentz, now know as the ‘‘Aberdeen
where, among other things, chemical weapons are Three’’—were criminally indicted for illegally han-
developed. The U.S. Army has used the facility to de- dling, sorting, and disposing of hazardous wastes in vi-
velop, test, store, and dispose of chemical weapons olation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery
since World War II. Periodic inspections between Act (RCRA). Although the three engineers did not actu-
1983 and 1986 revealed serious problems with a ally handle the chemicals, they were the managers
part of the facility known as the Pilot Plant, including with ultimate responsibility for the violations. Investi-
the following: gators for the Department of Justice concluded that
no one above them was sufficiently aware of the prob-
! Flammable and cancer-causing substances were
lems at the Pilot Plant to be assigned responsibility for
left in the open.
the violations. The three engineers were competent
! Chemicals that would become lethal if mixed
professionals who played important roles in the devel-
were kept in the same room.
opment of chemical weapons for the United States.
! Drums of toxic substances were leaking.
William Dee, the developer of the binary chemical
There were chemicals everywhere—misplaced, unla- weapon, headed the chemical weapons development
beled, or poorly contained. When part of the roof col- team. Robert Lentz was in charge of developing the
lapsed, smashing several chemical drums stored below, processes that would be used to manufacture the
no one cleaned up or moved the spilled substance and weapons. Carl Gepp, manager of the Pilot Plant,
broken containers for weeks.1 reported to Dee and Lentz.
When an external sulfuric acid tank leaked Six months after the indictment, the Department
200 gallons of acid into a nearby river, state and federal of Justice took the three defendants to court. Each de-
investigators were summoned to investigate. They dis- fendant was charged with four counts of illegally stor-
covered that the chemical retaining dikes were in a ing and disposing of waste. William Dee was found
state of disrepair and that the system designed to con- guilty of one count, and Lentz and Gepp were found
tain and treat hazardous chemicals was corroded, guilty on three counts each of violating the RCRA.
resulting in chemicals leaking into the ground.2 Although each faced up to 15 years in prison and
On June 28, 1988, after 2 years of investigation, $750,000 in fines, they received sentences of
three chemical engineers—Carl Gepp, William Dee, 1,000 hours of community service and 3 years’

– 234 –
 CASE 2 ! Big Dig Collapse 235

probation. The judge justified the relatively light sen- the three engineers were criminally indicted, the
tences on the grounds of the high standing of the U.S. Army could not assist them in their legal defense.
defendants in the community and the fact that they This was the first criminal conviction of federal
had already incurred enormous court costs. Because employees under RCRA.

CASE 2

Big Dig Collapse3

On July 10, 2006, a husband and wife were traveling displacement discovered in 1999 in portions of the
through a connector tunnel in the Big Dig tunnel Big Dig system as related to creep due to the use of
system in Boston. This system runs Interstate 93 be- Fast Set epoxy.
neath downtown Boston and extends the Massachu- On the basis of the NTSB report, Powers was
setts Turnpike to Logan Airport. As the car passed issued an involuntary manslaughter indictment by
through, at least 26 tons of concrete collapsed onto the Massachusetts attorney general’s office just days
it when a suspended concrete ceiling panel fell from after the release of the report. The indictment charged
above. The wife was killed instantly and the husband that ‘‘Powers had the necessary knowledge and the op-
sustained minor injuries. The Massachusetts attorney portunity to prevent the fatal ceiling collapse but failed
general’s office issued subpoenas next day to those to do so.’’
involved in the Big Dig project. Soon, a federal inves- The NTSB also targeted several other sources for
tigation ensued. blame in the incident (although no additional indict-
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ments were made). It concluded that construction con-
released its findings a year after the incident. The tractors Gannett Fleming, Inc. and Bechtel/Parsons
focus of the report was the anchor epoxy used to Brinkerhoff failed to account for the possibility of
fasten the concrete panels and hardware to the creep under long-term load conditions. The report
tunnel ceiling. This product was marketed and distrib- indicated that these parties should have required that
uted by Powers Fasteners, Inc., a company that spe- load tests be performed on adhesives before allowing
cializes in the manufacturing and marketing of their use and that the Massachusetts Turnpike Author-
anchoring and fastening materials for concrete, ma- ity should have regularly inspected the portal tunnels.
sonry, and steel. It asserted that if the Authority had conducted such
Investigators found that Powers distributed two inspections, the creep may have been detected early
kinds of epoxy: Standard Set and Fast Set. The latter enough to prevent catastrophe.
type of epoxy, the one used in the collapsed ceiling The report provided recommendations to parties
tile, was susceptible to ‘‘creep,’’ a process by which interested in the Big Dig incident. To the American
the epoxy deforms, allowing support anchors to pull Society of Civil Engineers, it advised the following:
free. The investigators concluded that this process
allowed a ceiling tile to give way on July 10, 2006. Use the circumstances of the July 10, 2006, accident
in Boston, Massachusetts, to emphasize to your mem-
According to the NTSB report, Powers knew that
bers through your publications, website, and conferen-
Fast Set epoxy was susceptible to creep and useful
ces, as appropriate, the need to assess the creep
for short-term load bearing only. Powers did not
characteristics of adhesive anchors before those anchors
make this distinction clear in its marketing materials— are used in sustained tensile-load applications.
the same materials distributed to tunnel project
managers and engineers. Powers, the report continued, To what extent must engineers educate them-
‘‘failed to provide the Central Artery/Tunnel project selves on the various materials being used and pro-
with sufficiently complete, accurate, and detailed infor- cesses being employed in a project in order to
mation about the suitability of the company’s Fast Set ensure safety? If lack of knowledge played a part in
epoxy for sustaining long-term tensile-loads.’’ The causing the collapse, how might such understanding
report also noted that Powers failed to identify anchor specifically help engineers to prevent an event like
236 CASES

this in the future? How else might engineers work to 2006. This document can be accessed online at
avoid a similar catastrophe? www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2007/HAR-07-02.htm.
2. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of
REFERENCES the Attorney General, ‘‘Powers Fasteners Indicted
for Manslaughter in Connection with Big Dig
1. National Transportation Safety Board, Public
Tunnel Ceiling Collapse.’’ This document can be
Meeting of July 10, 2007, ‘‘Highway Accident
accessed online at www.mass.gov.
Report Ceiling Collapse in the Interstate 90 Con-
nector Tunnel, Boston, Massachusetts,’’ July 10,

CASE 3

Bridges4
On August 1, 2007, the I-35W bridge over the Missis- ‘‘older design features and, while it is not unsafe for
sippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed all vehicles, it cannot safely accommodate current traf-
during rush hour, resulting in 13 deaths and a multi- fic volumes, and vehicle sizes and weights.’’ In 2003,
tude of injuries. The bridge was inspected annually 27.1 percent of bridges in the United States were
dating from 1993 and every 2 years before that since deemed either structurally deficient or functionally
its opening in 1967. The most recent inspection, con- obsolete.
ducted on May 2, 2007, cited only minor structural The ASCE urges that ‘‘America must change its
concerns related to welding details. At that time, the transportation behavior, increase transportation invest-
bridge received a rating of 4 on a scale from 0 to 9 ment at all levels of government, and make use of the
(0 ¼ shut down, 9 ¼ perfect). The rating of 4, although latest technology’’ to help alleviate the infrastructure
signifying a bridge with components in poor condition, problem involving the bridge system. In order for
meant that the state was allowed to operate the bridge Americans to answer this charge, they must be aware
without any load restrictions. of the problem. What role should engineers and engi-
A bridge rated 4 or less is considered to be ‘‘struc- neering societies play in informing the public about
turally deficient.’’ According to the U.S. Department of the state of U.S. bridges? Should engineers lobby for
Transportation, this label means that ‘‘there are ele- congressional support and appropriate amounts of fed-
ments of the bridge that need to be monitored and/or eral spending to be allocated to bridge repairs and
repaired. The fact that a bridge is ‘deficient’ does not reconstruction?
imply that it is likely to collapse or that it is unsafe.
It means it must be monitored, inspected, and main- REFERENCES
tained.’’ In some cases, load restrictions are placed 1. ASCE, ‘‘Report Card for America’s Infrastructure,’’
on structurally deficient bridges. 2005. This document can be accessed online at
Although the cause of the I-35W collapse is still http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/index.cfm.
under investigation, the incident raises important ques- 2. Minnesota Department of Transportation, ‘‘Inter-
state 35W Bridge Collapse,’’2007. This document
tions about the state of U.S. bridges. In Minnesota,
can be accessed online at http://www.dot.state
there are 1,907 bridges that are structurally deficient,
.mn.us/i35wbridge/index.html.
which means they have also received a rating of 4 or 3. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal High-
lower on inspection. Bridges may also be considered way Administration, ‘‘I-35 Bridge Collapse,
‘‘functionally obsolete,’’ a label that the American Minneapolis, MN.’’ This document can be
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Report Card for accessed online at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/
America’s Infrastructure defines as a bridge that has pressroom/fsi35.htm.
 CASE 5 ! Cartex 237

CASE 4

Cadillac Chips5
Charged with installing computer chips that resulted the meeting of emission standards were conducted
in emitting excessive amounts of carbon dioxide when the system was not running. This was standard
from their Cadillacs, General Motors (GM) agreed in practice for emission tests throughout the automotive
December 1995 to recall nearly 500,000 late-model industry.
Cadillacs and pay nearly $45 million in fines and However, EPA officials argued that under the
recall costs. Lawyers for the Environmental Protection Clean Air Act, GM should have informed them that
Agency (EPA) and the Justice Department contended the Cadillac’s design was changed in a way that
that GM knew that the design change would result in would result in violating pollution standards under
pollution problems. Rejecting this claim, GM released normal driving conditions. In 1970, the officials said,
a statement saying that the case was ‘‘a matter of inter- automobile manufacturers were directed not to get
pretation’’ of complex regulations, but that it had around testing rules by designing cars that technically
‘‘worked extremely hard to resolve the matter and pass the tests but that nevertheless cause avoidable
avoid litigation.’’ pollution. GM’s competitors, the officials contended,
According to EPA and Justice Department offi- complied with that directive.
cials, the $11 million civil penalty was the third larg- A GM spokesperson said that testing emissions
est penalty in a pollution case, the second largest such with the climate control running was not required be-
penalty under the Clean Air Act, and the largest cause ‘‘it was not in the rules, not in the regulations;
involving motor vehicle pollution. This was also the it’s not in the Clean Air Act.’’ However, claiming
first case of a court ordering an automobile recall to that GM discovered the problem in 1991, Justice De-
reduce pollution rather than to improve safety or partment environmental lawyer Thomas P. Carroll
dependability. objected to GM’s continued inclusion of the chip in
Government officials said that in 1990 a new the 1992–1995 models: ‘‘They should have gone
computer chip was designed for the engine controls back and re-engineered it to improve the emissions.’’
of Cadillac Seville and Deville models. This was in re- In agreeing to recall the vehicles, GM said it
sponse to car owners’ complaints that these cars now had a way of controlling the stalling problem
tended to stall when the climate control system was without increasing pollution. This involves ‘‘new fu-
running. The chips injected additional fuel into the eling calibrations,’’ GM said, and it ‘‘should have no
engine whenever this system was running. But this adverse effect on the driveability of the vehicles
resulted in tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide well involved.’’
in excess of the regulations. What responsibilities did GM engineers have in
Although the cars are usually driven with the cli- regard to either causing or resolving the problems
mate control system running, tests used for certifying with the Cadillac Seville and Deville models?

CASE 5

Cartex
Ben is assigned by his employer, Cartex, to work on an in any way to the development of military hardware.
improvement to an ultrasonic range-finding device. So Ben neither develops the idea himself nor mentions
While working on the improvement, he gets an idea it to anybody else in the company. Ben has signed an
for a modification of the equipment that might be ap- agreement that all inventions he produces on the job
plicable to military submarines. If this is successful, it are the property of the company, but he does not be-
could be worth a lot of money to his company. How- lieve the agreement applies to his situation because
ever, Ben is a pacifist and does not want to contribute (1) his idea is not developed and (2) his superiors
238 CASES

know of his antimilitary sentiments. Yet he wonders if share this idea with others on the grounds that he
he is ethically right in concealing his idea from his feared it would be used for immoral purposes. ‘‘I do
employers. not publish or divulge on account of the evil nature
An interesting historical precedent: Leonardo Da of men who would practice assassinations at the
Vinci recorded in his journal that he had discovered bottom of the seas, by breaking the ships in their
how to make a vessel that can move about underwa- lowest parts and sinking them together with the
ter—a kind of submarine. However, he refused to crews who are in them.’’6

CASE 6

Citicorp7
William LeMessurier was understandably proud of specification for full-penetration welds was not fol-
his structural design of the 1977 Citicorp building lowed. Instead, the joints were bolted. However,
in downtown Manhattan. He had resolved a perplex- since this still more than adequately satisfied the
ing problem in a very innovative way. A church had New York building code requirements, LeMessurier
property rights to a corner of the block on which the was not concerned.
59-story building was to be constructed. LeMessurier However, as he began to work on calculations for
proposed constructing the building over the church, his class, LeMessurier recalled his Pittsburgh discov-
with four supporting columns located at the center ery. He wondered what difference bolted joints
of each side of the building rather than in the four might make to the building’s ability to withstand quar-
corners. The first floor began the equivalent of nine tering winds. To his dismay, LeMessurier determined
stories above ground, thus allowing ample space that a 40 percent stress increase in some areas of the
for the church. LeMessurier used a diagonal bracing structure would result in a 160 percent increase in
design that transferred weight to the columns, and stress on some of the building’s joints. This meant
he added a tuned mass damper with a 400-ton con- that the building was vulnerable to total collapse if cer-
crete block floating on oil bearings to reduce wind tain areas were subjected to a ‘‘16-year storm’’ (i.e.,
sway. the sort of storm that could strike Manhattan once
In June 1978, LeMessurier received a call from a every 16 years). Meanwhile, hurricane season was
student at a nearby university who said his professor not far away.
claimed the Citicorp building’s supporting columns LeMessurier realized that reporting what he had
should be on the corners instead of midway between learned could place both his engineering reputation
them. LeMessurier replied that the professor did not and the financial status of his firm at substantial risk.
understand the design problem, adding that the inno- Nevertheless, he acted quickly and decisively. He
vative design made it even more resistant to quarter- drew up a plan for correcting the problem, estimated
ing, or diagonal, winds. However, since the New the cost and time needed for rectifying it, and immedi-
York City building codes required calculating the ately informed Citicorp owners of what he had
effects of only 90-degree winds, no one actually learned. Citicorp’s response was equally decisive.
worked out calculations for quartering winds. Then LeMessurier’s proposed course of action was accepted
he decided that it would be instructive for his own stu- and corrective steps were immediately undertaken. As
dents to wrestle with the design problem. the repairs neared completion in early September, a
This may have been prompted by not only the hurricane was reported moving up the coast in the di-
student’s call but also a discovery LeMessurier had rection of New York. Fortunately, it moved harmlessly
made just 1 month earlier. While consulting on a build- out over the Atlantic Ocean, but not without first caus-
ing project in Pittsburgh, he called his home office ing considerable anxiety among those working on the
to find out what it would cost to weld the joints of building, as well as those responsible for implement-
diagonal girders similar to those in the Citicorp ing plans to evacuate the area should matters take a
building. To his surprise, he learned that the original turn for the worse.
 CASE 7 ! Disaster Relief 239

Although correcting the problem cost several the situation, a much more costly disaster may have
million dollars, all parties responded promptly and re- been prevented. As a result, the rates were actually
sponsibly. Faced with the threat of increased liability reduced.
insurance rates, LeMessurier’s firm convinced its Identify and discuss the ethical issues this case
insurers that because of his responsible handling of raises.

CASE 7

Disaster Relief 8
Among the 24 recipients of the John D. and Catherine themselves. He learned to focus on the main problem
T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowships for 1995 was in any disaster to better understand how to plan the
Frederick C. Cuny, a disaster relief specialist. The relief aid. Thus, if the problem was shelter, the people
fellowship program is commonly referred to as a should be shown how to rebuild their destroyed
‘‘genius program,’’ but it is characterized by MacArthur homes in a better fashion than before. Similar
executives as a program that rewards ‘‘hard-working approaches were adopted regarding famine, drought,
experts who often push the boundaries of their disease, and warfare.
fields in ways that others will follow.’’9 The program, The first major engineering project Cuny worked
says Catherine Simpson, director of the awards pro- on was the Dallas–Ft. Worth airport. However,
gram, is meant to serve as ‘‘a reminder of the impor- attracted to humanitarian work, he undertook disaster
tance of seeing as broadly as possible, of being relief work in Biafra in 1969. Two years later, at age
willing to live outside of a comfort zone and of keep- 27, he founded the Intertect Relief and Reconstruction
ing your nerve endings open.’’10 Corporation in Dallas. Intertect describes itself as
Cuny’s award was unusual in two respects. First, a professional firm providing specialized services
at the time the award was announced, his where- and technical assistance in all aspects of natural disaster
abouts were unknown, and it was feared that he had and refugee emergency management—mitigation, pre-
been executed in Chechnya. Second, he was a practic- paredness, relief, recovery, reconstruction, resettlement—
ing engineer. Most MacArthur awards go to writers, including program design and implementation, camp
artists, and university professors. planning and administration, logistics, vulnerability analy-
Ironically, although honored for his engineering sis, training and professional development, technology
achievements, Cuny never received a degree in engi- transfer, assessment, evaluation, networking and informa-
neering. Initially planning to graduate from the tion dissemination.’’12
ROTC program at Texas A & M as a Marine pilot, he Intertect also prides itself for its ‘‘multidisciplinary, flex-
had to drop out of school in his second year due to ible, innovative, and culturally-appropriate approach
poor grades. He transferred to Texas A & I, Kingsville, to problem-solving.’’13 Obviously, such an enterprise
to continue his ROTC coursework, but his grades suf- requires the expertise of engineers. But it also must
fered there as well. Although he never became a draw from social services, health and medical care pro-
Marine pilot, he worked effectively with Marine fessionals, sociology, anthropology, and other areas.
corps officers later in Iraq and Somalia.11 Fred Cuny was apparently comfortable working
In Kingsville, Cuny worked on several community across disciplines. As an undergraduate he also studied
projects after he dropped out of school. He found his African history. So, it is understandable that he would
niche in life working in the barrios with poor Mexicans take a special interest in the course of the conflict be-
in Kingsville and formulated some common sense tween the Nigerian and Biafran governments in the
guidelines that served him well throughout his late 1960s. In 1969, he announced to the Nigerian
career. As he moved into disaster relief work, he un- minister of the interior, ‘‘I’m from Texas. I’m here to
derstood immediately that the aid had to be designed study the war and try to suggest what can be done to
for those who were in trouble in ways that would get in humanitarian aid when it’s over.’’14 Rebuffed
leave them in the position of being able to help by the minister, Cuny then flew to Biafra and helped
240 CASES

organize an airlift that provided short-term assistance hundreds. Thus, residents risked their lives to bring
to the starving Biafrans. back containers of water whose contaminated con-
Cuny learned two important lessons from his Bia- tents posed additional risks. Noting that Sarajevo had
fran work. First, food distribution in disaster relief often expanded downhill in recent years, and that the
pulls people from their homes and working areas to newer water system had to pump water uphill to Old
distribution centers in towns and airports. Cuny com- Town Sarajevo, the Cuny team concluded that there
mented, ‘‘The first thing I recognized was that we must have been an earlier system for Old Town.16
had to turn the system around and get people back They located a network of old cisterns and channels
into the countryside away from the airfield.’’ Second, still in good working order, thus providing them with
Cuny realized that public health is a major problem— a basis for designing and installing a new water
one that can effectively be addressed only through filtration plant. This $2.5 million project was funded
careful planning. This requires engineering efforts by the Soros Foundation, which also provided
to, for example, build better drains, roads, dwellings, $2.7 million to restore heat for more than 20,000
and so on. At the same time, Cuny realized that citizens of Sarajevo.
relatively few engineers were in relief agencies: Cuny told author Christopher Merrill, ‘‘We’ve got
hence the founding of Intertect. Concerned to share to say, ‘If people are in harm’s way, we’ve got to get
his ideas with others, in 1983 Cuny published Disasters them out of there. The first and most important thing
and Development (Oxford University Press), which is saving lives. Whatever it takes to save lives, you
provides a detailed set of guidelines for planning do it, and the hell with national sovereignty.’’’17 This
and providing disaster relief. A major theme of philosophy lay behind his efforts to save 400,000
his book is that truly helpful relief requires careful Kurds in northern Iraq after Operation Desert Storm,
study of local conditions in order to provide long- in addition to thousands of lives in Sarajevo; however,
term assistance. this may be what cost him his own life in Chechnya
Despite its small size, since its founding in 1971, in 1995.
Intertect has been involved in relief projects in nearly Perhaps Cuny’s single most satisfying effort was in
70 different countries during Cuny’s career. His work northern Iraq immediately following Operation Desert
came to the attention of wealthy Hungarian philan- Storm. As soon as Iraq signed the peace treaty, Saddam
thropist George Soros, who provided him with funding Hussein directed his troops to attack the Shiites in the
to work on a number of major disaster relief projects. south and the Kurds in the north. The 400,000 Kurds
An especially daring project was the restoration of fled into the mountains bordering Turkey, where the
water and heat to a besieged section of Sarajevo in Turks prevented them from crossing the border.
1993.15 Modules for a water filtration system were Winter was coming and food was scarce. President
specially designed to fit into a C-130 airplane that Bush created a no-fly zone over northern Iraq and
was flown from Zagreb (Croatia’s capital) into directed the Marine Corps to rescue the Kurds in
Sarajevo. (Cuny commented that there were only what was called ‘‘Operation Provide Comfort.’’ The
3 inches to spare on each side of the storage area.) Marine general in charge hired Fred Cuny as a consul-
In order to get the modules unnoticed through Serbian tant, and Cuny quickly became, in effect, second in
checkpoints, they had to be unloaded in less than command of the operation.
10 minutes. When Operation Provide Comfort was regarded
Clearly, the preparation and delivery of the mod- as no longer necessary, the Kurds held a farewell cel-
ules required careful planning and courage in execu- ebration at which the full Marine battalion marched
tion. However, prior to that someone had to before joyous crowds, with one civilian marching in
determine that such a system could be adapted to the first row—Fred Cuny. Cuny had an enlargement
the circumstances in Sarajevo. When Cuny and his of a photo of that moment hung over his desk in
associates arrived in Sarajevo, for many the only Dallas. The photo has the signature of the Marine gen-
source of water was from a polluted river. The river eral who led the parade.
could be reached only by exposing oneself to sniper Asked about his basic approach to disaster relief,
fire, which had already injured thousands and killed Cuny commented: ‘‘In any large-scale disaster, if you
 CASE 7 ! Disaster Relief 241

can isolate a part that you can understand you will He really knows what he’s doing. He’s not just some
usually end up understanding the whole system.’’18 cowboy.’’21 At the Moscow press conference calling
In the case of Sarajevo, the main problems seemed an end to the search, Cuny’s son Chris said, ‘‘Let it
to center around water and heat. So this is what be known to all nations and humanitarian organiza-
Cuny and associates set out to address. In preparing tions that Russia was responsible for the death of one
for disaster relief work, Cuny was from the outset of the world’s great humanitarians.’’22 William Shaw-
struck by the fact that medical professionals and mate- cross fittingly concludes his article, ‘‘A Hero for Our
rials are routinely flown to international disasters, but Time,’’ as follows:
engineers and engineering equipment and supplies
At the memorial meeting in Washington celebrating
are not. So, his recurrent thought was, ‘‘Why
Fred’s life it was clear that he had touched people in a
don’t you officials give first priority to, say, fixing remarkable way. He certainly touched me; I think he
the sewage system, instead of merely stanching was a great man. The most enduring memorials to
the inevitable results of a breakdown in sanitary Fred are the hundreds of thousands of people he has
conditions?’’19 helped—and the effect he has had, and will have, on
It is unusual for engineers to receive the sort of the ways governments and other organizations try to re-
public attention Fred Cuny did. We tend to take for lieve the suffering caused by disasters throughout the
granted the good work that engineers do. Insofar as world.
engineers ‘‘make the news,’’ more likely than not
this is when an engineering disaster has occurred, a AN AFTERWORD
product is subjected to vigorous criticism, or an engi- It is certainly appropriate to make special note of ex-
neer has blown the whistle. Fred Cuny’s stories are traordinary individuals such as Frederick C. Cuny for
largely stories of successful humanitarian ventures. special praise. His life does seem heroic. However,
Fred Cuny’s untimely, violent death was tragic. we would do well to remember that even heroes
In April 1995, while organizing a field hospital for have helpers. Cuny worked with others, both at Inter-
victims in the conflict in Chechnya, Cuny, two Rus- tect and at the various other agencies with whom Inter-
sian Red Cross doctors, and a Russian interpreter dis- tect collaborated. There are unnamed engineers in
appeared. After a prolonged search, it was concluded Sarajevo with whom he worked. For example, his Sar-
that all four were executed. Speculation is that Che- ajevo team was able to locate the old cisterns and
chens may have been deliberately misinformed that channels through the assistance of local engineers
the four were Russian spies. Cuny’s article in the (and historians).23 Local engineers assisted in installing
New York Review of Books titled ‘‘Killing Chech- the water filtration system.
nya’’ was quite critical of the Russian treatment of Furthermore, once the system was installed, the
Chechnya, and it gives some indication of why his water had to be tested for purity. Here, a conflict
views might well have antagonized Russians. 20 developed between local engineers (as well as Cuny
Already featured in the New York Times, the New and specialists from the International Rescue Commit-
Yorker Magazine, and the New York Review of tee) and local water safety inspectors who demanded
Books, Cuny had attained sufficient national recogni- further testing. Convinced that they had adequately
tion that his disappearance received widespread at- tested the water, the local engineers, Cuny, and the In-
tention and immediate response from President ternational Rescue Committee were understandably
Clinton and government officials. Reports on the impatient. However, the cautious attitude of the
search for Cuny and colleagues regularly appeared water safety experts is understandable as well.
in the press from early April until August 18, 1995, Muhamed Zlatar, deputy head of Sarajevo’s Institute
when his family finally announced that he was now for Water, commented, ‘‘The consequences of letting
assumed dead. in polluted water could be catastrophic. They could
Many tributes have been made to the work of Fred be worse than the shelling. We could have 30,000
Cuny. Pat Reed, a colleague at Intertect, was quoted people come down with stomach diseases, and some
soon after Cuny’s disappearance: ‘‘He’s one of the of them could die.’’24 Without presuming who might
few visionaries in the emergency management field. have been right, we might do well to remember Fran
242 CASES

Kelsey, the FDA official who, in 1962, refused to ap- Identify and discuss the ethical issues raised by
prove thalidomide until further testing was done. the story of Frederick C. Cuny.
That is, in our rush to do good, caution should not
be thrown to the winds.

CASE 8

Electric Chair
Thanks in part to Theodore Bernstein, retired Univer- electric chair. Not wanting his company’s reputation
sity of Wisconsin professor of electrical and computer to be tied to the electric chair, Westinghouse provided
engineering, apparently the electric chair is disappear- funding to William Kemmler’s attorneys in their effort
ing.25 Once regarded as a more humane way of exe- to stop their client from becoming the first person exe-
cuting someone than beheading or hanging, the cuted in an electric chair. Edison testified that an elec-
electric chair itself has a questionable history. For in- tric chair that used alternating current would cause
stance, the Death Penalty Information Center classifies minimal suffering and instantaneous death. Although
10 of the 149 electrocutions of the past 25 years Kemmler’s attorneys got Edison to admit that he
as botched. Although, as Bernstein says, ‘‘You give knew little about the structure of the human body or
enough shocks, you can kill anybody,’’ it is not clear conductivity in the brain, Edison’s claims carried the
how much is enough—or too much. day. According to Bernstein, Edison’s ‘‘reputation
Having spent three decades studying the effects of made more of an impression than did his bioelectrical
electricity on the human body, Bernstein has fre- ignorance.’’27
quently testified in court and in hearings in an effort Not only was Kemmler the first person executed
to help defendants avoid being placed in the electric in an electric chair but also he was the first person
chair. He comments, whose execution by electricity required more than
The substance of my testimony is pretty much
one application of current, the second of which
always the same. I tell the court that most of the caused vapor and smoke to be emitted from Kemm-
work on the electric chair was done with a seat-of- ler’s body. Witnesses were dismayed by what they
the-pants approach. The electrical design is poor. saw, with one physician commenting that using an
Every state has a different sequence of shocks. Many electric chair ‘‘can in no way be regarded as a step
of the states use old equipment, and they don’t test it in civilization.’’28 According to Bernstein, a basic
very well. They’ll have in the notebook or the proto- problem was that executioners knew very little about
cols, ‘‘Check the equipment,’’ or ‘‘Check the electro- how electrocution causes death—and, he notes, exe-
des.’’ What does that mean? They need to be more cutioners know little more even today.
specific.26
Does electrocution ‘‘fry the brain’’? Bernstein
The problem, says Bernstein, is that electrocution comments: ‘‘That’s a lot of nonsense. The skull has a
has always been controlled by people without back- very high resistance, and current tends to flow
ground in biomedical engineering. This is also around it.’’ Actually, he says, electrocution usually
reflected in its beginnings in the late 19th century. causes cardiac arrest, and this may not be painless—
Believing that the alternating current (AC) system of and it may not be fatal on the first try.
his competitor, George Westinghouse, was more dan- Discuss the ethical issues surrounding Theodore
gerous than his own system of direct current (DC), Bernstein’s chosen area of research and his role as a
Thomas Edison recommended the AC system for the witness in the courtroom and legal hearings.
 CASE 9 ! Fabricating Data 243

CASE 9

Fabricating Data29
INTRODUCTION detected; and this adds considerably to the mischief
and harm they can cause. Two well-known cases illus-
In recent years, the National Science Foundation
trate this, both of which feature ambitious, and appar-
(NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the
ently successful, young researchers.
Public Health Services (PHS), the Office of Scientific
Integrity, and various scientific organizations such
as the National Academy of Sciences have spent con- THE DARSEE CASE30
siderable time and effort in trying to agree on a defi- Dr. John Darsee was regarded as a brilliant student
nition of scientific misconduct. A good definition is and medical researcher at the University of Notre
needed in developing and implementing policies Dame (1966–1970), Indiana University (1970–1974),
and regulations concerning appropriate conduct Emory University (1974–1979), and Harvard Univer-
in research, particularly when federal funding is sity (1979–1981). He was regarded by faculty at all
involved. This is an important area of concern be- four institutions as a potential ‘‘all-star’’ with a great
cause although serious scientific misconduct may be research future ahead of him. At Harvard, he report-
infrequent, the consequences of even a few instances edly often worked more than 90 hours a week as a re-
can be widespread. search fellow in the Cardiac Research Laboratory
Those cases that reach the public’s attention can headed by Dr. Eugene Braunwald. In less than
cause considerable distrust among both scientists and 2 years at Harvard, he was first author of seven publi-
the public, however infrequent their occurrence. Like cations in very good scientific journals. His special
lying in general, we may wonder which scientific area of research concerned the testing of heart drugs
reports are tainted by misconduct, even though we on dogs.
may be convinced that relatively few are tainted. Fur- All of this came to a sudden halt in May 1981
thermore, scientists depend on each other’s work in when three colleagues in the Cardiac Research Labo-
advancing their own. Building one’s work on the in- ratory observed Darsee labeling data recordings
correct or unsubstantiated data of others infects one’s ‘‘24 seconds,’’ ‘‘72 hours,’’ ‘‘one week,’’ and ‘‘two
own research, and the chain of consequences can be weeks.’’ In reality, only minutes had transpired. Con-
quite lengthy as well as very serious. This is as true fronted by his mentor Braunwald, Darsee admitted
of honest or careless mistakes as it is of the intentional the fabrication, but he insisted that this was the only
distortion of data, which is what scientific misconduct time he had done this, and that he had been under in-
is usually restricted to. Finally, of course, the public tense pressure to complete the study quickly. Shocked,
depends on the reliable expertise of scientists in virtu- Braunwald and Darsee’s immediate supervisor,
ally every area of health, safety, and welfare. Dr. Robert Kroner, spent the next several months
Although exactly what the definition of scientific checking other research conducted by Darsee in
misconduct should include is a matter of controversy, their lab. Darsee’s research fellowships were termi-
all proposed definitions include the fabrication and fal- nated, and an offer of a faculty position was with-
sification of data and plagiarism. As an instance of drawn. However, he was allowed to continue his
fraud, the fabrication of data is a particularly blatant research projects at Harvard for the next several
form of misconduct. It lacks the subtlety of questions months (during which time Braunwald and Kroner
about interpreting data that pivot around whether the observed his work very closely).
data have been ‘‘fudged’’ or ‘‘manipulated.’’ Fabricat- Hopeful that this was an isolated incident, Braun-
ing data is making it up, or faking it. Thus, it is a clear wald and Kroner were shocked again in October. A
instance of a lie, a deliberate attempt to deceive others. comparison of results from four different laboratories
However, this does not mean that fabrications are in a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
easy to detect or handle effectively once they are Models Study revealed an implausibly low degree of
244 CASES

invariability in data provided by Darsee. In short, his our own integrity and ethical standards. Nothing
data looked ‘‘too good.’’ Since these data had been could have adequately prepared us for what we
submitted in April, there was strong suspicion that experienced.
Darsee had been fabricating or falsifying data for
Braunwald notes some positive things that have
some time. Subsequent investigations seemed to indi-
come from the Darsee case. In addition to alerting
cate questionable research practices dating back as
scientists to the need for providing closer supervision
far as his undergraduate days.
of trainees and taking authorship responsibilities
What were the consequences of John Darsee’s
more seriously, the Darsee incident contributed to
misconduct? Darsee, we have seen, lost his research
the development of guidelines and standards con-
position at Harvard, and his offer of a faculty position
cerning research misconduct by PHS, NIH, NSF,
was withdrawn. The NIH barred him from NIH fund-
medical associations and institutes, and universities
ing or serving on NIH committees for 10 years. He
and medical schools. However, he cautions that no
left research and went into training as a critical care
protective system is able to prevent all research mis-
specialist. However, the cost to others was equally, if
conduct. In fact, he doubts that current provisions
not more, severe. Harvard-affiliated Brigham and
could have prevented Darsee’s misconduct, although
Women’s Hospital became the first institution that
they might have resulted in earlier detection. Further-
NIH ever required to return funds ($122,371) because
more, he warns that good science does not thrive in
of research involving fraudulent data. Braunwald and
an atmosphere of heavy ‘‘policing’’ of one another’s
colleagues had to spend several months investigating
work:32
Darsee’s research rather than simply continuing the
work of the Cardiac Research Laboratory. Further- The most creative minds will not thrive in such an
more, they were severely criticized for carrying on environment and the most promising young people
their own investigation without informing NIH of might actually be deterred from embarking on a scien-
their concerns until several months later. The morale tific career in an atmosphere of suspicion. Second only
to absolute truth, science requires an atmosphere of
and productivity of the laboratory were damaged. A
openness, trust, and collegiality.
cloud of suspicion hung over all the work with
which Darsee was associated. Not only was Darsee’s Given this, it seems that William F. May is right in
own research discredited but also, insofar as it formed urging the need for a closer examination of character
an integral part of collaborative research, a cloud was and virtue in professional life.33 He says that an impor-
thrown over published research bearing the names of tant test of character and virtue is what we do when no
authors whose work was linked with Darsee’s. one is watching. The Darsee case and Braunwald’s
The months of outside investigation also took reflections seem to confirm this.
others away from their main tasks and placed them Many who are caught having engaged in scien-
under extreme pressure. Statistician David DeMets tific misconduct plead that they were under extreme
played a key role in the NIH investigation. Years pressure, needing to complete their research in order
later, he recalled the relief his team experienced to meet the expectations of their lab supervisor, to
when their work was completed:31 meet a grant deadline, to get an article published,
or to survive in the increasingly competitive world
For the author and the junior statistician, there was of scientific research. Although the immediate
relief that the episode was finally over and we could stakes are different, students sometimes echo related
get on with our careers, without the pressures of a
concerns: ‘‘I knew how the experiment should have
highly visible misconduct investigation. It was clear
turned out, and I needed to support the right
early on that we had no room for error, that any mis-
takes would destroy the case for improbable data
answer’’; ‘‘I needed to get a good grade’’; ‘‘I didn’t
and severely damage our careers. Even without mis- have time to do it right; there’s so much pressure.’’
takes, being able to convince lay reviewers such as a Often these thoughts are accompanied by another—
jury using statistical arguments could still be defeating. namely that this is only a classroom exercise and
Playing the role of the prosecuting statisticians was that, of course, one will not fabricate data when
very demanding of our technical skills but also of one becomes a scientist and these pressures are
 CASE 9 ! Fabricating Data 245

absent. What the Darsee case illustrates is that it is on all these publications. For those involved in the re-
naive to assume such pressures will vanish. There- search, efforts need to be made in each case to deter-
fore, the time to begin dealing with the ethical chal- mine to what extent, if any, the validity of the research
lenges they pose is now, not later (when the stakes was affected by Bruening’s role in the study. Even
may be even higher). though Bruening was the only researcher to fabricate
data, his role could contaminate an entire study. In
THE BRUENING CASE34 fact, however, not all of Bruening’s research did in-
In December 1983, Dr. Robert Sprague wrote an volve fabrication. Yet, convincing others of this is a
8-page letter, with 44 pages of appendices, to the time-consuming, demanding task. Finally, those who
National Institute of Mental Health documenting the cited Bruening’s publications in their own work may
fraudulent research of Dr. Stephen Breuning.35 Breun- also suffer ‘‘guilt by association.’’ As Poling points
ing fabricated data concerning the effects psychotropic out, this is especially unfair in those instances in
medication has on mentally retarded patients. Despite which Bruening collaborations with others involved
Breuning’s admission of fabricating data only 3 months no fraud at all.
after Sprague sent his letter, the case was not finally
resolved until July 1989. During that 5½-year interval, THE ISSUES
Sprague was a target of investigation (in fact, he was The Darsee and Bruening cases raise a host of ethical
the first target of investigation), he had his own re- questions about the nature and consequences of scien-
search endeavors severely curtailed, he was subjected tific fraud:
to threats of lawsuits, and he had to testify before a
! What kinds of reasons are offered for fabricating
U.S. House of Representatives committee. Most pain-
ful of all, Sprague’s wife died in 1986 after a lengthy data?
! Which, if any, of those reasons are good
bout with diabetes. In fact, his wife’s serious illness
was one of the major factors prompting his ‘‘whistle- reasons—that is, reasons that might justify fabri-
blowing’’ to NIH. Realizing how dependent his dia- cating data?
betic wife was on reliable research and medication,
! Who is likely to be harmed by fabricating data?
Sprague was particularly sensitive to the dependency Does actual harm have to occur in order for
that the mentally retarded, clearly a vulnerable popu- fabrication to be ethically wrong?
lation, have on the trustworthiness of not only their
! What responsibilities does a scientist or engineer
caregivers but also those who use them in experimen- have for checking the trustworthiness of the
tal drug research. work of other scientists or engineers?
Writing 9 years after the closing of the Bruening
! What should a scientist or engineer do if he or
case, Sprague obviously has vivid memories of the she has reason to believe that another scientist
painful experiences he endured and of the potential or engineer has fabricated data?
harms to participants in Bruening’s studies. However,
! Why is honesty in research important to the
he closes the account of his own experiences by remind- scientific and engineering communities?
ing us of other victims of Bruening’s misconduct—
! Why is honesty in research important for the
namely psychologists and other researchers who col- public?
laborated with Bruening without being aware that he
! What might be done to diminish the likelihood
had fabricated data. that research fraud occurs?
Dr. Alan Poling, one of those psychologists,
writes about the consequences of Bruening’s miscon- READINGS
duct for his collaborators in research. Strikingly, For readings on scientific integrity, including sections
Poling points out that between 1979 and 1983, Bruen- on the fabrication of data and a definition of scientific
ing was a contributor to 34 percent of all published misconduct, see Nicholas Steneck, ORI Introduction
research on the psychopharmacology of mentally to Responsible Conduct in Research (Washington,
retarded people. For those not involved in the re- DC: Office of Research Integrity, 2004); Integrity and
search, initial doubts may, however unfairly, be cast Misconduct in Research (Washington, DC: U.S.
246 CASES

Department of Health and Human Services, 1995); (Research Triangle Park, NC: Sigma Xi, The Scientific
On Being a Scientist, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: Na- Research Society, 1991).
tional Academy Press, 1995); and Honor in Science

CASE 10

Gilbane Gold
The fictional case study presented in the popular vid- David has an obligation as an engineer to protect the
eotape Gilbane Gold focuses on David Jackson, a health of the public. Fourth, David has a right, if not
young engineer in the environmental affairs depart- an obligation, to protect and promote his own career.
ment of ZCORP, located in the city of Gilbane.36 The problem David faces is this: How can he do
The firm, which manufactures computer parts, dis- justice to all of these claims? If they are all morally le-
charges lead and arsenic into the sanitary sewer gitimate, he should try to honor all of them, and yet
of the city. The city has a lucrative business in process- they appear to conflict in the situation. David’s first
ing the sludge into fertilizer, which is used by farmers option should be to attempt to find a creative middle
in the area. way solution, despite the fact that the claims appear
To protect its valuable product, Gilbane Gold, to be incompatible in the situation. What are some
from contamination by toxic discharges from the of the creative middle way possibilities?37
new high-tech industries, the city has imposed highly One possibility would be to find a cheap techni-
restrictive regulations on the amount of arsenic and cal way to eliminate the heavy metals. Unfortunately,
lead that can be discharged into the sanitary sewer the video does not directly address this possibility. It
system. However, recent tests indicate that ZCORP begins in the midst of a crisis at ZCORP and focuses
may be violating the standards. David believes that almost exclusively on the question of whether David
ZCORP must invest more money in pollution-control Jackson should blow the whistle on his reluctant com-
equipment, but management believes the costs will pany. For a detailed exploration of some creative
be prohibitive. middle way alternatives, see Michael Pritchard and
David faces a conflict situation that can be char- Mark Holtzapple, ‘‘Responsible Engineering: Gilbane
acterized by the convergence of four important Gold Revisited,’’ Science and Engineering, 3, no. 2,
moral claims. First, David has an obligation as a April 1997, pp. 217–231.
good employee to promote the interests of his com- Another avenue to explore in Gilbane Gold is
pany. He should not take actions that unnecessarily the attitudes toward responsibility exhibited by the
cost the company money or damage its reputation. various characters in the story. Prominent, for exam-
Second, David has an obligation—based on his per- ple, are David Jackson, Phil Port, Diane Collins,
sonal integrity, his professional integrity as an engi- Tom Richards, Frank Seeders, and Winslow Massin.
neer, and his special role as environmental Look at the transcript (available at www.niee.org/
engineer—to be honest with the city in reporting pd.cfm?pt=Murdough). What important similarities
data on the discharge of the heavy metals. Third, and differences do you find?

CASE 11

Green Power? 38
The growing consensus among scientists that carbon Collins, Colorado, has a Climate Wise energy program
emissions are contributing to global warming is also to go with its official motto, ‘‘Where renewal is a way
beginning to have a significant impact on local of life.’’ Local reduction of carbon emissions is one of
energy policies and projects. For example, Fort the city’s global aims.
 CASE 12 ! Greenhouse Gas Emissions 247

At the same time, local communities such as Fort an electrical engineer and environmental consultant
Collins have continued, if not growing, energy needs. on the Fort Collins Electric Utilities Board. Johnson
AVA Solar and Powertech Uranium are proposing quotes Bihn as saying ‘‘I think nuclear needs to be
ways of helping to meet these needs. Working with on the table, and we need to work through this thing
Colorado State University, AVA has developed a man- and we can’t just emotionally react to it.’’ What is
ufacturing process to make electricity-producing solar Bihn’s emotional reaction to Powertech’s proposal?
panels. Solar energy has popular appeal and is typi- ‘‘Deep down inside,’’ he told Johnson, ‘‘my emotional
cally given high marks in regard to ‘‘green’’ technol- reaction is that we should never do this.’’
ogy. Local critics, however, have some worries about Lane Douglas, a spokesperson for Powertech and
the AVA project. The process uses cadmium, which its Colorado land and project manager, urges that its
raises concerns about cancer. AVA’s director of strate- company’s proposal be judged on facts, not prejudice.
gic planning, Russ Kanjorski, acknowledges that the ‘‘The science will either be good science or it won’t,’’
use of cadmium will call for careful environmental Douglas says. ‘‘We’re just saying give us a fair
monitoring, particularly in the discharge of water, hearing.’’
and that monitoring practices are still in the develop- Local citizens such as Ariana Friedlander are striv-
mental stage. ing to be consistent in evaluating the proposals. Skep-
Powertech Uranium proposes drilling for ura- tical about uranium mining, she adds, ‘‘But we
nium, which can be used to create nuclear power. Nu- shouldn’t be giving the other guys a pass because
clear power promises to reduce carbon emissions, but they’re sexy right now.’’
it lacks solar power’s popularity. Although Governor Discuss the ethical issues raised by the Fort
Bill Ritter, Jr., is strongly committed to what he calls Collins circumstances. What responsibilities do engi-
‘‘the new energy economy,’’ this does not favor ura- neers have in regard to issues like these? When
nium mining. In fact, there are long-term, unresolved Dan Bihn says we shouldn’t just emotionally react to
scientific and technological worries about extracting, these issues, do you think he is saying that he should
processing, and disposing of uranium. ignore his own emotional reaction? (Why do you sup-
Complicating matters is that both projects seem to pose he characterizes this as ‘‘deep down inside’’?)
have great economic potential for the companies and What do you think Lane Douglas has in mind by
the local economy. As Kirk Johnson states, ‘‘There is appealing to ‘‘good science’’ in resolving the issues
no doubt that new money is chasing new energy.’’ about uranium mining? Do you think ‘‘good science’’
Meanwhile, Johnson observes, local environmen- alone can provide the answers?
talists such as Dan Bihn are genuinely puzzled. Bihn is

CASE 12

Greenhouse Gas Emissions39

On November 15, 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Although it is expected that an appeal will be
Appeals in San Francisco rejected the Bush adminis- made to the U.S. Supreme Court, this ruling is one of
tration’s fuel economy standards for light trucks and several recent federal court rulings that urge regulators
sport utility vehicles. The three-judge panel objected to consider the risk of climate change in setting stan-
that the regulations fail to take sufficiently into ac- dards for carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gas
count the economic impact that tailpipe emissions emissions from industry.
can be expected to have on climate change. The Patrick A. Parenteau, Vermont Law School envi-
judges also questioned why the standards were so ronmental law professor, is quoted as saying, ‘‘What
much easier on light trucks than passenger cars. this says to me is that the courts are catching up with
(The standards hold that by 2010 light trucks are climate change and the law is catching up with cli-
to average 23.5 mpg, whereas passenger cars are to mate change. Climate change has ushered in a
average 27.5 mpg.) whole new era of judicial review.’’40
248 CASES

One of the judges, Betty B. Fletcher, invoked the Finally, Judge Fletcher wrote, ‘‘What was a rea-
National Environmental Policy Act in calling for cu- sonable balancing of competing statutory priorities
mulative impacts analyses explicitly taking into ac- 20 years ago may not be a reasonable balancing of
count the environmental impact of greenhouse gas those priorities today.’’
emissions. Acknowledging that cost–benefit analysis Given recent court trends, what implications are
may appropriately indicate realistic limits for fuel there for the responsibilities (and opportunities) of
economy standards, she insisted that ‘‘it cannot put a engineers working in the affected areas?
thumb on the scale by undervaluing the benefits and
overvaluing the costs of more stringent standards.’’

CASE 13

‘‘Groupthink’’ and the Challenger Disaster

The video Groupthink presents Irving Janis’s theory of View the video and then discuss the extent to which
‘‘groupthink’’ in the form of a case study of the 1986 you agree with the video’s suggestion that groupthink
Challenger disaster (discussed in Chapters 7 and 8). could have been a significant factor leading up to the
As we indicate in Chapter 2, Janis characterizes ‘‘group- Challenger disaster. (This video is available from CRM
think’’ as a set of tendencies of cohesive groups to Films, McGraw-Hill Films, 1221 Avenue of the Ameri-
achieve consensus at the expense of critical thinking. cas, New York, NY 10020. 1-800-421-0833.)

CASE 14

Halting a Dangerous Project

In the mid 1980s, Sam was Alpha Electronics’ project contacted the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of
leader on a new contract to produce manufactured Export Administration, as well as the Defense Depart-
weaponry devices for companies doing business with ment. He ruefully acknowledges that the issue would
NATO government agencies.41 The devices were have been brought to a close much more quickly.
advanced technology land mines with electronic con- The contract that Sam unilaterally voided by his
trols that could be triggered with capacitor circuits to action was for nearly $2 million over 15 years. Sam
go off only at specified times, rather than years later noted that no further hiring or equipment would
when children might be playing in old minefields. have been needed, so the contract promised to be
NATO provided all the technical specifications and highly profitable. There was a $15,000 penalty for
Alpha Electronics fulfilled the contract without prob- breaking the contract.
lems. However, Sam was concerned that one new On the basis of global corporate citizenship, it
end user of this device could negate the safety aspects was clear that Alpha Electronics could legally produce
of the trigger and make the land mines more danger- the devices for the NATO countries but not for the
ous than any others on the market. Eastern European company. The Cold War was in
After the NATO contract was completed, Sam full swing at that time.
was dismayed to learn that Alpha Electronics had On the basis of local corporate citizenship, it was
signed another contract with an Eastern European clear that Alpha Electronics had to consider the
firm that had a reputation of stealing patented devices expected impact on local communities. In particular,
and also of doing business with terrorist organizations. there was no guarantee regarding to whom the Eastern
Sam halted the production of the devices. He then European company would be selling the devices and
sought advice from some of his colleagues and how they would end up being used.
contacted the U.S. State Department’s Office of Muni- Sam took matters into his own hands without
tions Controls. In retrospect, he wishes he had also any foreknowledge of how his decision would be
 CASE 15 ! Highway Safety Improvements 249

viewed by his company’s upper management, board who were veterans of World War II, the Korean
of directors, or fellow workers, many of whom were War, and the Vietnam War who thanked him for
also company stockholders. Happily, Sam was his action.
never punished for his unilateral action of halting Sam strongly believed his action was the right
production. He recently retired from Alpha Electron- thing to do, both for his company and for the public
ics as a corporate-level vice president. He was espe- welfare. What ideas typically covered in an engineer-
cially gratified by the number of Alpha employees ing ethics course might support that conviction?

CASE 15

Highway Safety Improvements42

David Weber, age 23, is a civil engineer in charge of intersections in urban and rural areas throughout the
safety improvements for District 7 (an eight-county United States during the past 20 years.
area within a midwestern state). Near the end of the
fiscal year, the district engineer informs David that de- Urban Rural
livery of a new snow plow has been delayed, and as a
consequence the district has $50,000 in uncommitted Percent reduction in fatalities 50 50
funds. He asks David to suggest a safety project (or Percent reduction in injuries 50 60
projects) that can be put under contract within the cur- Percent reduction in PD 25 $25#
rent fiscal year. #
Property damage-only accidents are expected to increase because
After a careful consideration of potential projects, of the increase in rear-end accidents due to the stopping of high-
David narrows his choice to two possible safety speed traffic in rural areas.

improvements. Site A is the intersection of Main and

David recognizes that these reduction factors
Oak Streets in the major city within the district. Site
represent averages from intersections with a wide
B is the intersection of Grape and Fir Roads in a
range of physical characteristics (number of ap-
rural area.
proach lanes, angle of intersection, etc.), in all cli-
Pertinent data for the two intersections are as
mates, with various mixes of trucks and passenger
follows:
vehicles, various approach speeds, various driving
habits, and so on. However, he has no special data
Site A Site B about sites A and B that suggest relying on these
tables is likely to misrepresent the circumstances at
Main road traffic (vehicles/day) 20,000 5,000
these sites.
Minor road traffic (vehicles/day) 4,000 1,000
Finally, here is additional information that David
Fatalities per year (3-year 2 1
knows:
average)
Injuries per year (3-year 6 2 1. In 1975, the National Safety Council (NSC) and
average) the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis-
PD# (3-year average) 40 12 tration (NHTSA) both published dollar scales
Proposed improvement New New for comparing accident outcomes, as shown
signals signals below:
Improvement cost $50,000 $50,000
#
PD refers to property damage-only accidents. NSC NHTSA
A highway engineering textbook includes a table Fatality $52,000 $235,000
of average reductions in accidents resulting from the Injury 3,000 11,200
installation of the types of signal improvements PD 440 500
David proposes. The tables are based on studies of
250 CASES

A neighboring state uses the following weighting 2. Individuals within the two groups pay roughly
scheme: the same transportation taxes (licenses, gasoline
taxes, etc.).

Fatality 9.5 PD Which of the two site improvements do you think

Injury 3.5 PD David should recommend? What is your rationale for
this recommendation?

CASE 16

Hurricane Katrina
As we have noted in the text, until approximately The ASCE report documents engineering failures,
1970 nearly all engineering codes of ethics held organizational and policy failures, and lessons learned
that the engineer’s first duty is fidelity to his or her for the future. Chapter 7 of the report (‘‘Direct Causes
employer and clients. However, soon after 1970, of the Catastrophe’’) begins as follows:44
most codes insisted that ‘‘Engineers shall hold para-
What is unique about the devastation that befell the
mount the safety, health, and welfare of the
New Orleans area from Hurricane Katrina—compared
public.’’ Whatever may have precipitated this
to other natural disasters—is that much of the destruc-
change in the early 1970s, recent events—ranging tion was the result of engineering and engineering-
from the collapse of Manhattan’s Twin Towers on related policy failures.
September 11, 2001, to the collapse of a major
bridge in Minneapolis/St. Paul on August 1, 2007— From an engineering standpoint, the panel asserts,
make apparent the vital importance of this principle. there was an underestimation of soil strength that ren-
The devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina along dered the levees more vulnerable than they should
the Gulf of Mexico coastline states of Louisiana, Mis- have been, a failure to satisfy standard factors of safety
sissippi, and Alabama in late August 2005 is also a in the original designs of the levees and pumps, and a
dramatic case in point. failure to determine and communicate clearly to the
Hardest hit was Louisiana, which endured the public the level of hurricane risk to which the city
loss of more than 1,000 lives, thousands of homes, and its residents were exposed. The panel concludes,45
damage to residential and nonresidential property of
With the benefit of hindsight, we now see that
more than $20 billion, and damage to public infra-
questionable engineering decisions and management
structure estimated at nearly $7 billion. Most severely choices, and inadequate interfaces within and between
damaged was the city of New Orleans, much of organizations, all contributed to the problem.
which had to be evacuated and which suffered the
loss of more than 100,000 jobs. The city is still reel- This might suggest that blame-responsibility is in
ing, apparently having permanently lost much of its order. However, the panel chose not to pursue this
population and only slowly recovering previously line, pointing out instead the difficulty of assigning
habitable areas. blame:46
At the request of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
No one person or decision is to blame. The engineer-
(USACE), the ASCE formed the Hurricane Katrina Ex-
ing failures were complex, and involved numerous deci-
ternal Review Panel to review the comprehensive
sions by many people within many organizations over a
work of USACE’s Interagency Performance Evaluation long period of time.
Task Force. The resulting ASCE report, The New
Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Rather than attempt to assign blame, the panel
Wrong and Why, is a detailed and eloquent statement used the hindsight it acquired to make recommenda-
of the ethical responsibilities of engineers to protect tions about the future. The report identifies a set of crit-
public safety, health, and welfare.43 ical actions the panel regards as necessary. These
 CASE 16 ! Hurricane Katrina 251

actions fall under one of four needed shifts in thought that ‘‘ASCE has a long-standing policy that recommends
and approach:47 independent external peer review of public works proj-
ects where performance is critical to public safety,
! Improve the understanding of risk and firmly
health, and welfare.’’51 This is especially so where re-
commit to safety. liability under emergency conditions is critical, as it
! Repair the hurricane protection system.
clearly was when Hurricane Katrina struck. The effec-
! Reorganize the management of the hurricane
tive operation of such an external review process, the
protection system. panel concludes, could have resulted in a significant re-
! Insist on engineering quality.
duction in the amount of (but by no means all) destruc-
The first recommended action is that safety be tion in the case of Hurricane Katrina.
kept at the forefront of public priorities, preparing for The panel’s final recommendation is essentially a
the possibility of future hurricanes rather than allowing reminder of our limitations and a consequent ethical
experts and citizens alike to fall into a complacency imperative to ‘‘place safety first’’:52
that can come from the relative unlikelihood of a Although the conditions leading up to the New Or-
repeat performance in the near future. leans catastrophe are unique, the fundamental con-
The second and third recommendations concern straints placed on engineers for any project are not.
making clear and quantifiable risk estimates and com- Every project has funding and/or schedule limitations.
municating them to the public in ways that enable Every project must integrate into the natural and man-
nonexperts to have a real voice in determining the ac- made environment. Every major project has political
ceptability or unacceptability of those risks. ramifications.
The next set of recommendations concern replac- In the face of pressure to save money or to make up
time, engineers must remain strong and hold true to the
ing the haphazard, uncoordinated hurricane protection
requirements of the profession’s canon of ethics, never
‘‘system’’ with a truly organized, coherent system. This,
compromising the safety of the public.
the panel believes, calls for ‘‘good leadership, manage-
ment, and someone in charge.’’48 It is the panel’s rec- The panel concludes with an appeal to a broader
ommendation that a high-level licensed engineer, or a application of the first Fundamental Canon of ASCE’s
panel of highly qualified, licensed engineers, be Code of Ethics. Not only must the commitment to pro-
appointed with full authority to oversee the system:49 tect public safety, health, and welfare be the guiding
principle for New Orleans’ hurricane protection
The authority’s overarching responsibility will be to
system but also ‘‘it must be applied with equal rigor
keep hurricane-related safety at the forefront of public
to every aspect of an engineer’s work—in New
priorities. The authority will provide leadership, strate-
gic vision, definition of roles and responsibilities, for- Orleans, in America, and throughout the world.’’53
malized avenues of communication, prioritization of Reading the panel’s report in its entirety would be
funding, and coordination of critical construction, main- a valuable exercise in thinking through what ASCE’s
tenance, and operations. first Fundamental Canon requires not only regarding
the Hurricane Katrina disaster but also regarding
The panel’s seventh recommendation is to im- other basic responsibilities to the public that are inher-
prove interagency coordination. The historical record ent in engineering practice.
thus far, the panel maintains, is disorganization and A related reading is ‘‘Leadership, Service Learn-
poor mechanisms for interagency communication:50 ing, and Executive Management in Engineering: The
Those responsible for maintenance of the hurricane
Rowan University Hurricane Katrina Recovery
protection system must collaborate with system design- Team,’’ by a team of engineering students and faculty
ers and constructors to upgrade their inspection, advisors at Rowan University.54 In their abstract, the
repair, and operations to ensure that the system is authors identify three objectives for the Hurricane
hurricane-ready and flood-ready. Katrina Recovery Team Project:

Recommendations 8 and 9 relate to the upgrading The main objective is to help distressed communities
and review of design procedures. The panel points out in the Gulf Coast Region. Second, this project seeks to
252 CASES

not only address broader social issues but also leave a the Asian tsunami disaster. Hafner and Deutsch
tangible contribution or impact in the area while comment,56
asking the following questions: What do we as profes-
sional engineers have as a responsibility to the commun- With two disasters behind them, some companies
ities we serve, and what do we leave in the community are applying lessons they have learned to their
to make it a better, more equitable place to live? The last hurricane-related philanthropy. GE is a case in point.
objective is the management team’s successful assess- During the tsunami, the company put together a
ment of the experience, including several logistical chal- team of 50 project engineers—experts in portable
lenges. To this end, this article seeks to help other water purification, energy, health care, and medical
student-led projects by relaying our service learning ex- equipment.
perience in a coherent, user-friendly manner that serves After Hurricane Katrina, GE executives took their
as a model experience. cues from Jeffrey R. Immelt, GE’s chief executive, and
reactivated the same tsunami team for New Orleans.
‘‘Jeff told us, ‘Don’t let anything stand in the way of get-
CORPORATE RESPONSES ting aid where it’s needed,’’’ said Robert Corcoran, vice
Supportive corporate responses to the Katrina hurri- president for corporate citizenship.
cane were swift. By mid-September 2005, more than
$312 million worth of aid had been donated by Discuss how, with corporate backing, engineers
major corporations, much of it by those with no who subscribe to Fred Cuny’s ideas about effective di-
plants or businesses in the afflicted areas.55 Engineers saster relief in his Disasters and Development (Oxford
have played a prominent role in these relief efforts, University Press, 1983) might approach the engineer-
as they did after the 9/11 Twin Towers attack and ing challenges of Katrina.

CASE 17

Hyatt Regency Walkway Disaster

Approximately 4 years after its occurrence, the tragic to closely monitor the project manager’s work as ‘‘a
1981 Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse conscious indifference to his professional duties as
was in the news again. A November 16, 1985, New an engineer of record.’’
York Times article reported the decision of Judge This court case shows that engineers can be held
James B. Deutsch, an administrative law judge for Mis- responsible not only for their own conduct but also for
souri’s administrative hearing commission. Judge the conduct of others under their supervision. It
Deutsch found two of the hotels structural engineers also holds that engineers have special professional
guilty of gross negligence, misconduct, and unprofes- responsibilities.
sional conduct. Discuss the extent to which you think engineering
The ASCE may have influenced this court ruling. societies should play the sort of role ASCE apparently
Just before the decision was made, ASCE announced did in this case. To what extent do you think practicing
a policy of holding structural engineers responsible engineers should support (e.g., by becoming members)
for structural safety in their designs. This policy professional engineering societies’ attempts to articu-
reflected the recommendations of an ASCE committee late and interpret the ethical responsibilities of
that convened in 1983 to examine the disaster. engineers?
The project manager, Judge Deutsch is quoted as The Truesteel Affair is a fictionalized version of
saying, displayed ‘‘a conscious indifference to his pro- circumstances similar to those surrounding the Hyatt
fessional duties as the Hyatt project engineer who was Regency walkway collapse. View this video and dis-
primarily responsible for the preparation of design cuss the ethical issues it raises. (This film is available
drawings and review of shop drawings for that proj- from Fanlight Productions, 47 Halifax St., Boston,
ect.’’ The judge also cited the chief engineer’s failure MA 02130. 1-617-524-0980.)
 CASE 18 ! Hydrolevel 253

CASE 18

Hydrolevel 57
‘‘A conflict of interest is like dirt in a sensitive gauge,’’ and Miller, James was on the ASME subcommittee re-
one that can not only soil one person’s career but also sponsible for heating boilers and had played a leading
taint an entire profession.58 Thus, as professionals, role in writing the part of the boiler code that Mitchell
engineers must be ever alert to signs of conflict of in- was asking about.
terest. The case of the American Society of Mechanical James recommended that he and Mitchell
Engineers (ASME) v. Hydrolevel Corporation shows approach the chairman of the ASME Heating Boiler
how easily individuals, companies, and professional Subcommittee, T. R. Hardin. Hardin was also vice
societies can find themselves embroiled in expensive president of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and
legal battles that tarnish the reputation of the engineer- Insurance Company. When Hardin arrived in Chicago
ing profession as a whole. in early April on other business, the three men went to
In 1971, Eugene Mitchell, vice president for sales dinner at the Drake Hotel. During dinner, Hardin
at McDonnell and Miller, Inc., located in Chicago, agreed with Mitchell and James that their interpreta-
was concerned about his company’s continued domi- tion of the code was correct.
nance in the market for heating boiler low-water fuel Soon after the meeting with Hardin, James sent
cutoff valves that ensure that boilers cannot be fired ASME a draft letter of inquiry and sent Hardin a
without sufficient water in them because deficient copy. Hardin made some suggestions, and James in-
water could cause an explosion. corporated Hardin’s suggestions in a final draft letter.
Hydrolevel Corporation entered the low-water James’s finalized draft letter of inquiry was then
cutoff valve market with an electronic low-water fuel addressed to W. Bradford Hoyt, secretary of the B-PV
supply cutoff that included a time delay on some of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Committee.
its models. Hydrolevel’s valve had won important ap- Hoyt received thousands of similar inquiries every
proval for use from Brooklyn Gas Company, one of the year. Since Hoyt could not answer James’s inquiry
largest installers of heating boilers. Some Hydrolevel with a routine, prefabricated response, he directed
units added the time-delay devices so the normal tur- the letter to the appropriate subcommittee chairman,
bulence of the water level at the electronic probe T. R. Hardin. Hardin drafted a response without con-
would not cause inappropriate and repeated fuel sulting the whole subcommittee, a task he had author-
supply turn-on and turn-off. Mitchell believed that ization for if the response was treated as an ‘‘unofficial
McDonnell and Miller’s sales could be protected if communication.’’
he could secure an interpretation stating that the Hardin’s response, dated April 29, 1971, stated
Hydrolevel time delay on the cutoff violated the that a low-water fuel cutoff must operate immediately.
ASME B-PV code. He referred to this section of Although this response did not say that Hydrolevel’s
the ASME code: ‘‘Each automatically fired steam or time-delayed cutoff was dangerous, McDonnell and
vapor system boiler shall have an automatic low- Miller’s salesmen used Hardin’s conclusion to argue
water fuel cutoff, so located as to automatically cut against using the Hydrolevel product. This was done
off the fuel supply when the surface of the water falls at Mitchell’s direction.
to the lowest visible part of the water-gauge glass.’’59 In early 1972, Hydrolevel learned of the ASME
Thus, Mitchell asked for an ASME interpretation of letter through one of its former customers who had a
the mechanism for operation of the Hydrolevel copy of the letter. Hydrolevel then requested an offi-
device as it pertained to the previously mentioned sec- cial copy of the letter from ASME. On March 23,
tion of the code. He did not, however, specifically 1972, Hydrolevel requested an ASME review and
mention the Hydrolevel device in his request. ruling correction.
Mitchell discussed his idea several times with ASME’s Heating and Boiler Subcommittee had a
John James, McDonnell and Miller’s vice president full meeting to discuss Hydrolevel’s request, and it
for research. In addition to his role at McDonnell confirmed part of the original Hardin interpretation.
254 CASES

James, who had replaced Hardin as chairman of the verdict of $1.1 million, which was tripled to $3.3 mil-
subcommittee, refrained from participating in the dis- lion. Parties involved were claiming attorney’s fees in
cussion but subsequently helped draft a critical part excess of $4 million, and a final settlement of
of the subcommittee’s response to Hydrolevel. The $4,750,000 was decreed.
ASME response was dated June 9, 1972. Following the decision, ASME revised it’s proce-
In 1975, Hydrolevel filed suit against McDonnell dures as follows:
and Miller, Inc., ASME, and the Hartford Steam Boiler
In the wake of the Hydrolevel ruling, the Society has
Inspection and Insurance Company, charging them
changed the way it handles codes and standards inter-
with conspiracy to restrain trade under the Sherman
pretations, beefed up its enforcement and conflict-of-
Antitrust Act. interest rules, and adopted new ‘‘sunset’’ review proce-
Hydrolevel reached an out-of-court settlement dures for its working bodies.
with McDonnell and Miller and Hartford for The most striking changes affect the Society’s han-
$750,000 and $75,000, respectively. ASME took the dling of codes and standards interpretations. All such
case to trial. ASME officials believed that, as a society, interpretations must now be reviewed by at least five
ASME had done nothing wrong and should not be persons before release; before, the review of two
liable for the misguided actions of individual volunteer people was necessary. Interpretations are available to
members acting on their own behalf. After all, ASME the public, with replies to nonstandard inquiries pub-
gained nothing from such practices. ASME officials lished each month in the Codes and Standards section
of ME or other ASME publications. Previously, such
also believed that a pretrial settlement would set a
responses were kept between the inquirer and the
dangerous precedent that would encourage other nui-
involved committee or subcommittee. Lastly, ASME
sance suits. incorporates printed disclaimers on the letterhead used
Despite ASME arguments, however, the jury de- for code interpretations spelling out their limitations:
cided against ASME, awarding Hydrolevel $3.3 mil- that they are subject to change should additional infor-
lion in damages. The trial judge deducted $800,000 mation become available and that individuals have the
in prior settlements and tripled the remainder in accor- right to appeal interpretations they consider unfair.
dance with the Clayton Act. This resulted in a decision Regarding conflict-of-interest, ASME now requires
of $7,500,000 for Hydrolevel. all staff and volunteer committee members to sign state-
On May 17, 1982, ASME’s liability was upheld by ments pledging their adherence to a comprehensive and
the second circuit. The Supreme Court, in a controver- well-defined set of guidelines regarding potential con-
flicts. Additionally, the Society now provides all staff
sial 6-3 vote, found ASME guilty of antitrust violations.
and volunteers with copies of the engineering code of
The majority opinion, delivered by Justice Blackmun,
ethics along with a publication outlining the legal impli-
read as follows: cations of standards activities.
ASME wields great power in the nation’s economy. Finally, the Society now requires each of its councils,
Its codes and standards influence the policies of numer- committees, and subcommittees to conduct a ‘‘sunset’’
ous states and cities, and has been said about ‘‘so-called review of their operations every 2 years. The criteria in-
voluntary standards’’ generally, its interpretation of clude whether their activities have served the public in-
guidelines ‘‘may result in economic prosperity or eco- terest and whether they have acted cost-effectively, in
nomic failure, for a number of businesses of all sizes accordance with Society procedures.61
throughout the country,’’ as well as entire segments of
Conflict-of-interest cases quickly become compli-
an industry. . . . ASME can be said to be ‘‘in reality an
cated, as the following questions illustrate:
extragovernmental agency, which prescribes rules for
the regulation and restraint of interstate commerce.’’ ! How could McDonnell and Miller have avoided
When it cloaks its subcommittee officials with the au- the appearance of a conflict of interest? This
thority of is reputation, ASME permits those agents to
applies to both Mitchell and James.
affect the destinies of businesses and thus gives them ! What was T. R. Hardin’s responsibility as chair
power to frustrate competition in the marketplace.60
of the B-PV Code Heating Boiler Subcommittee?
The issue of damages was retried in a trial lasting How could he have handled things differently to
approximately 1 month. In June, the jury returned a protect the interests of ASME?
 CASE 21 ! Late Confession 255

! What can engineering societies do to protect ! Have ASME’s revised conflict-of-interest proce-
their interests once a conflict of interest is dures addressed the problems fully? Why or
revealed? why not?
! Was the final judgment against ASME fair? Why
or why not?

CASE 19

Incident at Morales
Incident at Morales is a multistage video case study setting. Interspersed between episodes are commenta-
developed by the National Institute for Engineering ries by several engineers and ethicists involved in the
Ethics (NIEE). It involves a variety of ethical issues production of the video. Information about ordering
faced by the consulting engineer of a company that the video is available from the NIEE or the Murdough
is in a hurry to build a plant so that it can develop a Center for Engineering Ethics (www.niee.org/pd.cfm?
new chemical product that it hopes will give it an pt=Murdough). The full transcript of the video and a
edge on the competition. Issues include environmen- complete study guide are available online from the
tal, financial, and safety problems in an international Murdough Center.

CASE 20

Innocent Comment?
Jack Strong is seated between Tom Evans and Judy raised some doubts about this. She was hired into a di-
Hanson at a dinner meeting of a local industrial engi- vision in which she is the only woman engineer. Now,
neering society. Jack and Judy have an extended dis- even after nearly 1 year on the job, she has to struggle
cussion of a variety of concerns, many of which are to get others to take her ideas seriously. She wants to
related to their common engineering interests. At the be recognized first and foremost as a good engineer.
conclusion of the dinner, Jack turns to Tom, smiles, So, she had enjoyed ‘‘talking shop’’ with Jack. But
and says, ‘‘I’m sorry not to have talked with you she was stunned by his remark to Tom, however inno-
more tonight, Tom, but Judy’s better looking than cently it might have been intended. Suddenly, she saw
you.’’ the conversation in a very different light. Once again,
Judy is taken aback by Jack’s comment. A recent she sensed that she was not being taken seriously
graduate from a school in which more than 20 percent enough as an engineer.
of her classmates were women, she had been led to How should Judy respond to Jack’s remark?
believe that finally the stereotypical view that Should she say anything? Assuming Tom understands
women are not as well suited for engineering as men her perspective, what, if anything, should he say
was finally going away. However, her first job has or do?

CASE 21

Late Confession
In 1968, Norm Lewis was a 51-year-old doctoral can- looked at his notes. For the next 32 years, Lewis told
didate in history at the University of Washington. 62 no one. At age 83, he decided to confess, and he
While taking his final exam in the program, he wrote to the president of the university admitting that
excused himself to go to the bathroom, where he he had cheated and that he had regretted it ever since.
256 CASES

Commenting on the case, Jeanne Wilson, presi- But, she added, ‘‘On the other hand, I think an institu-
dent of the Center for Academic Integrity remarked, tion might feel compelled to revoke the degree if we
‘‘I think there is an important lesson here for students were talking about a medical or law degree or license,
about the costs of cheating. He has felt guilty all or some other professional field such as engineering or
these years, and has felt burdened by this secret, education, and the individual were younger and still
believing that he never really earned the degree he employed on the basis of that degree or license.’’
was awarded.’’ Wilson’s position is that the University Discuss the ethical issues this case raises, both for
of Washington should not take action against Lewis, Dr. Lewis and for University of Washington officials.
given his confession, his age, and the fact that, after Evaluate Jeanne Wilson’s analysis, especially as it
all, he did complete his coursework and a dissertation. might apply to engineers.

CASE 22

Love Canal 63
INTRODUCTION property owners, industrial workers, politicians, scien-
tists, and people in all other walks of life differ with
Degradation of the environment resulting from human
regard to the relative value they accord to the benefits
activity is certainly not a phenomenon of recent origin.
and costs associated with restrictions on freedom of
As early as the 15th century, long before the beginning
action designed to protect the environment. A wide
of the industrial revolution, London was already being
variety of ethics and values issues arise in the course
plagued by noxious air pollution resulting from the
of attempting to balance such demands as property
burning of coal and wood. However, the extent of
rights and the entrepreneurial freedom to pursue prof-
the effect of environmental pollution was greatly
its against the ecological need to curtail those rights
increased following the end of World War II by the ex-
and restrict that freedom.
ponential expansion of industrial activity in developed
One of the most contentious environmental issues
nations, employing vast quantities of fossil fuels and
has been how to respond to the discovery of many
synthetic chemicals. Today’s environmental concerns
thousands of hazardous toxic dumps that have resulted
are regional, national, and global, as well as local.
from decades of virtually unrestricted disposal of toxic
The ongoing educational, social, and political
industrial waste. This issue was first widely publicized
movement, which has raised the consciousness of
as a result of the health emergency declared by the
people in the United States and throughout the world
New York State Department of Health in 1978 in re-
about environmental concerns, began in the early
sponse to shocking revelations about the problems
1960s. Its initiation is often attributed to the popular
caused by improper waste disposal in the now infa-
response to Silent Spring, the eloquent book by
mous Love Canal dump site. The actions and reactions
marine biologist Rachel Carson about the dire effects
of the corporation that disposed of the waste in ques-
of the overuse of pesticides and other chemical poi-
tion, public officials, residents, the media, and scien-
sons, which was published in 1962. The ensuing envi-
tists involved in the Love Canal controversy serve as
ronmental movement has spawned numerous local,
excellent illustrations of many of the ethics issues asso-
regional, national, and international organizations—
ciated with efforts to protect the public from environ-
many rather militant—that have used numerous tactics
mental pollution.
to press their demands for the preservation of clean air,
pure water, and unspoiled land. In response to these
demands, legislative bodies have enacted all manner BACKGROUND
of regulations and numerous agencies have been During the late 19th century, numerous canals were
charged with the task of environmental protection. built by entrepreneurs to unify waterways into efficient
This increase in environmental activity has been shipping systems. One such canal was begun in 1894
accompanied by much controversy. Entrepreneurs, by venture capitalist William Love in the Niagara Falls
 CASE 22 ! Love Canal 257

area of New York State. Within a few years, an eco- associated utilities resulted in the breaching of parts
nomic depression undermined Love’s financial plans of the canal’s cap and its cement walls.
and the partially completed project was abandoned.
Dubbed ‘‘Love Canal’’ by the local residents, it THE CASE
was used as a swimming hole and an ice rink. In The first known case of exposure to the buried toxins
1942, faced with the need for a place to dispose of occurred in 1958 when three children suffered chem-
toxic waste from the manufacture of chlorinated hydro- ical burns from waste that had resurfaced at the former
carbons and caustics, the Hooker Electrochemical Cor- canal site. Both Hooker Chemical and city officials
poration (currently Hooker Chemical and Plastics, a were officially informed, but neither the Niagara
subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation) Falls Health Department nor any other public agency
leased the canal as a waste dump. In 1947, Hooker took any action in response to that event or to numer-
bought the canal and the surrounding land. Between ous other complaints during the next 20 years. Hook-
1942 and 1950, more than 21,000 tons of chemicals, er’s records reveal that it investigated the initial
including such potent toxins as benzene, the pesticide incident and several other reports and quickly
lindane, polychlorinated dioxins, PCBs, and phospho- became convinced that the very large reservoir of
rous, were deposited in the canal, which Hooker had toxins was not likely to be contained. Hooker did
lined with cement. Having exhausted the canal’s po- nothing to convey this knowledge to the Love Canal
tential as a waste dump, Hooker then installed an im- homeowners, who had never been informed about
permeable cap that was supposed to prevent water the nature of the potential hazard. In testimony two
from entering and promoting seepage of the toxins, decades later, Hooker acknowledged that its failure
and the former canal disappeared from view beneath to issue a warning was due to concern that this
a layer of fill. might be interpreted as liability for possible harm de-
In the early 1950s, the local school board was spite the clause in their property sales deed.
confronted with the need to build a new school to ac- By 1978, occupants of the homes in the area had
commodate an increasing population of children. The begun to organize what was to become the Love Canal
board knew that Hooker was anxious to get rid of the Homeowners Association (LCHA), under the highly
Love Canal property and began making inquiries. competent and aggressive leadership of Lois Gibbs.
Hooker has claimed that it resisted and warned the Investigative newspaper reporter Michael Brown
board of education that the buried chemicals made helped publicize the plight of the many deeply con-
the site inappropriate for school construction. The cerned local residents who had encountered evidence
property sale was consummated for $1.00 in 1953, of toxins resurfacing in or around their property.
but the company asserts that it gave in because the Chemicals had been observed in the form of viscous
board would otherwise have taken the land by emi- fluids seeping into both yards and basements, perva-
nent domain. Whether Hooker was as reluctant as it sive odors in homes, and a stench emanating from
says it was and as assertive in cautioning the board storm sewer openings.
about the hazards is impossible to determine. Existing Love Canal soon became the first hazardous
minutes of the meetings in question do not fully sup- waste site to be featured in TV news reports and to
port Hooker’s version of the proceedings, and none get front-page headline billing in newspapers and
of the board members are still alive. What is clear is magazines in New York State and nationally. Embar-
that the deed that was negotiated contains a clause rassed by the past failure of officials to respond to
exempting Hooker from any ‘‘claim, suit, or action’’ the clear indications of a serious problem, both the
due to future human exposure to the buried chemicals. New York State Department of Health (NYSDH) and
An elementary school was built in the middle of the EPA quickly became involved. Tests soon revealed
the property and the surrounding land was sold by a wide variety of noxious chemicals in the air in Love
the school board to developers who built 98 homes Canal homes and an excess frequency of miscarriages
along the former canal banks and approximately among women living in homes adjacent to the former
1,000 additional houses in the Love Canal neighbor- canal site. A public health emergency was declared on
hood. The construction of the school, houses, and August 2, 1978, by the New York State Commissioner
258 CASES

of Health. A few days later, Governor Hugh Carey included the variation among individuals in their
announced that New York State would purchase the responses to chemical toxins and she anticipated that
239 homes nearest to the canal and assist the dis- in addition to helping the Love Canal residents, her
placed families in relocating. These abandoned involvement might also result in identifying appropri-
homes were fenced in and work was soon begun on ate subjects for her research work. Dr. Paigen designed
a plan to construct an elaborate drainage system a survey aimed at investigating several potential effects
including trenches, wells, and pumping stations to pre- of exposure to chemicals. She used a different set of
vent further outward migration of the toxins. assumptions about the mechanism and likely path
These initial actions, which quickly followed the of the flow of the dissolved toxins that seeped out of
emergence of Love Canal as a national ‘‘cause célè- the canal. Based on her model, Dr. Paigen found
bre,’’ ultimately cost the state and federal governments that miscarriages were significantly higher among
in excess of $42 million. Public officials quickly recog- women living in homes most likely to be in the path
nized that a continued preemptive response to poten- of the chemical plume. She also found much higher
tial health problems at Love Canal was likely to exceed than normal rates of birth defects and evidence of se-
available emergency funds in the state’s coffers. Fur- rious nervous system toxicity as well as elevated inci-
thermore, it was known that thousands of other toxic dences of asthma and urological problems for
waste sites existed throughout the country that might residents of these homes.
pose similar threats to numerous other communities. In early November 1978, Dr. Paigen presented
Thus, it is not surprising that the concerns and the results of her ‘‘unofficial’’ research to her
demands of the owners of the 850 homes outside the NYSDH superiors. After a delay of 3 months, the
inner evacuated circle were not to be satisfied by new New York State Commissioner of Health publicly
either state or federal officials in a similar manner. announced that after reevaluating its own data it
The NYSDH did conduct a survey study of the res- also found excess miscarriages and birth defects in
idents in the remaining homes, which led to an an- homes in previously ‘‘wet’’ regions of the Love Canal
nouncement in early fall that the rest of the neighborhood and promised additional studies of
neighborhood was safe, posing no increased health Dr. Paigen’s other findings. However, the action
risk. As subsequently revealed, this assurance had taken in response to these results puzzled and dis-
been based on only one health issue examined by mayed both the residents and Dr. Paigen. Families
the survey. The department had concluded that the with children younger than 2 years of age or with
miscarriage rate in the homes beyond the fence did women who could prove they were pregnant were to
not exceed normal rates—a conclusion based on a be relocated at state expense but only until the young-
methodology that was subsequently seriously ques- est child reached the age of 2 years. Women who were
tioned. The many other possible health effects of trying to become pregnant, or those who thought they
chemical exposure had not entered into the NYSDH were in the early stages of pregnancy when the fetus is
evaluation. most sensitive to toxins but who could not yet prove
Citing the fact that chemical seepage was evident they were pregnant with tests available at that time,
beyond the evacuated area and that families living were denied permission to join the group that was
there appeared to be experiencing unusual health evacuated.
problems, members of the LCHA rejected the depart- During the next 1½ years, the frustration and the
ment’s assurances. They demanded more definitive militancy of the LCHA members increased as the ad-
studies, and when they did not get a satisfactory re- ditional studies promised by the commissioner failed
sponse from either the NYSDH or the EPA, they to materialize. On the federal-level EPA lawyers had
sought scientific aid from outside the government’s en- become convinced by media reports and public
vironmental health establishment. appeals from Love Canal residents claiming a variety
Beverly Paigen, a cancer research scientist who of toxin-related illnesses that hundreds of additional
worked for the NYSHD Roswell Park Memorial Insti- families should be moved away. They sought a court
tute in nearby Buffalo, agreed to volunteer her services order from the Department of Justice requiring
in an unofficial capacity. Her professional interests Hooker Chemical to pay for the relocations. When
 CASE 22 ! Love Canal 259

the Justice Department responded by demanding evi- case was settled for $129 million. Individual victims
dence that the inhabitants who remained in the Love have thus far won in excess of $20 million from the
Canal neighborhood were at risk, the EPA commis- corporation.
sioned a quick ‘‘pilot’’ study to determine whether In early 1994, it was announced that the cleanup
residents had suffered chromosome damage that of the condemned homes in Love Canal had been
could be attributed to chemical exposure. This completed and it was safe to move back to the area.
study, which was to subsequently receive much criti- The real estate company offering the inexpensive
cism from the scientific community both because of refurbished homes for sale had chosen to rename the
its specific design and because, at the time, chromo- area ‘‘Sunrise City.’’
some studies were notoriously difficult to interpret,
did provide the type of evidence the EPA was seeking. READINGS AND RESOURCES
On the basis of finding ‘‘rare chromosomal aberra- A wealth of written and audiovisual material is avail-
tions’’ in 11 of 36 subjects tested, the scientist who able on Love Canal and other environmental contro-
performed the study concluded that inhabitants of versies. Searching the electronic catalogue of any
the area were at increased risk for a variety of adverse public or academic library or using an Internet
health outcomes. search engine should prove very fruitful.
On May 19, 1980, when two EPA representatives For a colorful discussion of the early events in the
went to the LCHA office in one of the evacuated Love Canal case by the investigative reporter who ini-
homes to announce the results of the chromosome tiated the media coverage of the issue, and for a per-
study, they were greeted by irate homeowners who sonal version of the events by the woman who
proceeded to lock them in the office for 5 hours organized the LCHA and went on to become a na-
until FBI agents arrived and demanded their release. tional leader of citizen’s toxic waste organizing, see
This tactic, which received the anticipated media
coverage, had the desired effect. With the interven- Michael Brown, Laying Waste (New York:
tion of high-ranking officials in the Executive Pantheon, 1979).
Branch, and undoubtedly with the support of Presi- Lois Gibbs, Love Canal: My Story, as told to
dent Carter, funds were made available for the reloca- Murray Levine (Albany: State University of
tion of several hundred additional Love Canal New York Press, 1981).
families.
For a thought-provoking article that focuses on the
A conclusion that can clearly be drawn from this
political and ethical dimensions of the case by the sci-
and many subsequent environmental controversies is
entist who volunteered her services to the Love Canal
that politics, public pressure, and economic consider-
residents, see
ations all take precedence over scientific evidence in
determining the outcome. Another aspect of the Love Beverly Paigen, ‘‘Controversy at Love Canal,’’
Canal case that is characteristic of such events is that The Hastings Center Report, June 1982,
the victims, although hostile to Hooker Chemical, pp. 29–37.
directed most of their rage at an indecisive, aloof,
For a report written by the public health, transpor-
often secretive and inconsistent public health
tation, and environmental agencies of New York
establishment.
State, see
Lawsuits against Occidental Petroleum Corpora-
tion, which bought Hooker Chemical in 1968, were New York State Department of Health, Office of
initiated by both the state of New York and the U.S. Public Health, ‘‘Love Canal, a Special Report
Justice Department to cover costs of the cleanup and to the Governor and Legislature,’’ with assis-
the relocation programs and also by more than tance of New York State Department of Trans-
2,000 people who claimed to have been personally portation and New York State Department
injured by the buried chemicals. In 1994, Occidental of Environmental Conservation (Albany, NY:
agreed to pay $94 million to New York in an out-of- New York State Department of Health, Office
court settlement, and the following year the federal of Public Health, 1981).
260 CASES

For two additional perspectives on the contro- that had more to do with values than science.’’ Con-
versy, see sider the differences in the values that might be of
greatest importance to a Love Canal resident, the
Adeline Levine, Love Canal: Science, Politics
New York State Commissioner of Health, a scientist
and People (Lexington, MA: Lexington
doing research sanctioned by either the New York
Books, 1982).
State Department of Environmental Conservation or
L. Gardner Shaw, Citizen Participation in Gov- the EPA, an independent scientist (like Dr. Paigen)
ernment Decision Making: The Toxic Waste who was doing volunteer research for the residents,
Threat at Love Canal, Niagara Falls, New and a typical citizen of the state of New York. In
York (Albany: State University of New York, what respects might these value differences lead
Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Govern- them to conflicting decisions about what should
ment, 1983). have been done in response to the Love Canal disaster
For articles published in science news journals, see and how to do it?
! Is it reasonable to demand that the ethical duty of
Barbara J. Culliton, ‘‘Continuing Confusion over
public officials is to respond to an environmental prob-
Love canal,’’ Science, 209, August 19,
lem by objectively examining the scientific facts and
1980, pp. 1002–1003.
the potential hazards to local residents, independent
‘‘Uncertain Science Pushes Love Canal Solutions of economic and political considerations?
to Political, Legal Arenas,’’ Chemical & ! One of the charges raised against the NYSDH and
Engineering News, August 11, 1980,
the health commissioner was that the public health
pp. 22–29.
establishment would not divulge the details of the
For comments on the plan to rehabilitate, rename, studies that led to its decisions, held many closed
and repopulate the Love Canal neighborhood, see meetings, and even refused to reveal the names of
members who served on consultation panels it estab-
Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News, 133, June 13,
lished. Do you think that there might be an ethical jus-
1989.
tification for such public agencies to refuse public
For a highly informative collection of essays, access to such information? If so, does this seem to
comments, and analysis on a wide variety of issues apply to the Love Canal situation?
in environmental ethics, see ! Another accusation was that state employees

D. Van Deveer and C. Pierce, Environmental sympathetic to the Love Canal residents were har-
Ethics and Policy Book (Belmont, CA: assed and punished. For example: Dr. Paigen’s ability
Wadsworth, 1994). to raise funds for her research work was curtailed by
the Roswell Park Memorial Institute, causing the pro-
THE ISSUES fessional staff to charge the administration with scien-
tific censorship; her mail arrived opened and taped
The following are significant questions of ethics and
shut; her office was searched; and when she was sub-
values raised by this case:
jected to a state income tax audit, she discovered
! Beverly Paigen, the research scientist who volun- newspaper clippings about her Love Canal activities
teered her services to the Love Canal residents, com- in the auditor’s file. In addition, when William Fried-
mented in reference to her differences with her man, who had been the Department of Environmental
superiors in the NYSDH, ‘‘I thought our differences Conservation’s regional director, pressed state offi-
could be resolved in the traditional scientific manner cials to take a less conservative approach to protect-
by examining protocols, experimental design, and sta- ing the health of Love Canal residents, he was
tistical analysis. But I was to learn that actual facts promptly demoted to staff engineer. This type of reac-
made little difference in resolving our disagreements— tion by the political power structure seems morally in-
the Love Canal controversy was predominantly defensible, but it is by no means unique to the Love
political in nature, and it raised a series of questions Canal case.
 CASE 22 ! Love Canal 261

! Another values issue is the extent of evidence that Hooker possessed the scientific expertise to be
needed to justify action to protect public health. In able to anticipate that dumping waste chemicals in
order for the scientific community to accept as fact the canal was likely to result in a public health
research showing that a specific health effect is threat. It was also argued that Hooker acted irrespon-
caused by a particular agent, the statistical analysis sibly by not informing the public of the risks it discov-
of the data must indicate with more than 95 percent ered in 1958. Should corporations be required to use
certainty that the observed effect could not occur their knowledge to avoid activities that may cause
by chance. This high but clearly arbitrary standard public harm?
has been adopted to protect the integrity of the ! In recent years, the issues of environmental jus-
body of accepted scientific facts. But should public tice and equity have been raised within the environ-
health officials demand, as they often do, the same mental movement. Minority populations, and poor
standard before taking action? For example, if evi- people in general, have produced persuasive data
dence shows that there is an 80 percent chance that showing that they are far more likely to be exposed
exposure to some chemical in the environment may to environmental pollution from factories or waste
cause a serious adverse health effect, should health disposal facilities than more affluent white people.
officials refuse to inform the public of the risk or In the Love Canal case, the initial neighborhood
take action to prevent exposure until further population was neither poor nor did it have a high
studies—which may take months or even years— percentage of minority members. Of course, those
raise the certainty of the causal relationship to who chose to live there were not aware of the pollu-
95 percent? tion risk. It is likely, however, that the inexpensive
! It is common in environmental controversies for houses now being offered to induce people to
those who believe they are at risk to become distrust- move back into the area after remediation is sup-
ful of public officials in charge of investigating their posed to have made it safe will attract primarily the
concerns. This was certainly the case in the Love poor. One proposal that has been put forth in re-
Canal controversy. It is unusual for a citizens group sponse to demand for environmental justice is to pro-
to be able to obtain the volunteer services of an inde- vide some form of reward to those who live in
pendent expert with qualifications like those of neighborhoods where exposure to environmental
Dr. Paigen and they are not likely to have the finan- toxins is significantly higher than average. Would
cial resources necessary to hire their own consultant. this be an ethical practice? What other steps might
Furthermore, although Dr. Paigen was able to pro- be taken to promote environmental equity in an
vide valuable scientific services, she was unable to ethical manner?
gain access to and assess much of the evidence ! In our society, environmental risks are generally
that the public officials used as the basis for their evaluated in economic terms. However, the assign-
decisions. Dr. Paigen and others have suggested ment of economic value to human health, a pristine
that the ethical solution to this problem is to provide forest, or a smog-free vista is surely not an objective
public funds to groups such as the LCHA with which exercise. What other means might be used to evaluate
they can hire their own experts and which they can environmental risks and benefits?
use to hire a qualified advocate who will be given ! We generally assign value to things in anthropo-
access to all public data and a voice in the genic terms. We consider how humans will be affected
decision-making process. by an activity that will cause pollution or degrade an
! The Hooker Chemical Company did not violate ecosystem. Some environmental ethicists have pro-
any then-existing specific environmental regulations posed that we should adopt a biocentric perspective
by disposing of toxic waste in Love Canal or by sell- in which living things and natural objects are assigned
ing the land to the school board. However, the courts intrinsic value independent of human concerns. How
have found Hooker financially liable for the harm that do you respond to the assertion that nature does not
was the ultimate result of their disposal practices. exist solely for the purpose of being exploited by
This decision was largely based on the judgment humans?
262 CASES

Although there is no explicit mention of engineers engineers have in regard to the prevention of hazards
in this case study, it is not difficult to imagine that engi- such as this from occurring in the future. What, if
neers, too, were involved in the events resulting in the any, public roles might they play in helping the
creation of the Love Canal hazard, as well as in the public understand what is at stake and how the
cleanup. Discuss the types of responsibilities that issues should be addressed?

CASE 23

Member Support by IEEE

In the mid-1970s, the New York City Police Depart- matter. Edgerton then sought advice from her profes-
ment operated an online computerized police car dis- sional society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
patching system called SPRINT. Upon receiving a Engineers (IEEE).
telephoned request for police assistance, a dispatcher After an electrical engineering professor at Co-
would enter an address into a computer and the com- lumbia University agreed that her concerns merited
puter would respond within seconds by displaying the further study, she sent a memorandum to the project
location of the nearest patrol car. By reducing the re- director requesting a study of the overload problem.
sponse time for emergency calls, the SPRINT system He rejected the memorandum out of hand, and Edge-
probably saved lives. rton soon thereafter sent copies of the memorandum
In 1977, another system, PROMIS, was being with a cover letter to the members of the Circle Proj-
considered by New York City prosecutors using ect’s committee. Immediately following this, Edgerton
the same host computer as that for SPRINT. The was discharged by the project director on the grounds
PROMIS system would provide names and addresses that she had, by communicating directly with the com-
of witnesses, hearing dates, the probation statuses of mittee members, violated his orders. He also stated
defendants, and other information that would assist that the issues she had raised were already under con-
prosecutors or arresting officers who wanted to tinuing discussion with the police department’s com-
check the current status of apprehended perpetrators. puter staff, although he gave no documentation to
This project was being managed by the Criminal Jus- support this claim.
tice Coordinating Council, or Circle Project, a com- The case was then investigated by the Working
mittee of high-level city officials that included the Group on Ethics and Employment Practices of the
deputy mayor for criminal justice, the police commis- Committee on the Social Implications of Technology
sioner, and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Mor- (CSIT) of the IEEE, and subsequently by the newly
genthau as chairman. formed IEEE Member Conduct Committee. Both
The committee employed a computer specialist as groups agreed that Edgerton’s actions were fully justi-
project director, who in turn hired Virginia Edgerton, fied. In 1979, she received the second IEEE–CSIT
an experienced system analyst, as senior information Award for Outstanding Service in the Public Interest.
scientist to work under his supervision. Soon after After her discharge, Edgerton formed a small company
being employed, Edgerton expressed concern to the selling data-processing services.64
project director about the possible effect on SPRINT’s Discuss the supporting role played by IEEE in this
response time from loading the computer with an ad- case. Does this provide electrical and electronic engi-
ditional task, but he instructed her to drop the neers an ethical basis for joining or supporting IEEE?
 CASE 24 ! Moral Development 263

CASE 24

Moral Development 65
The introduction of ethics into engineering education development is . . . enlarging the stock of paradigms for
raises an important question about moral education: each moral kind; developing better and better defini-
Shouldn’t a student’s introduction to ethics occur tions of whatever it is these paradigms exemplify; appre-
much earlier than the college level? The answer to ciating better the relation between straightforward
instances of the kind and close relatives; and learning
this question is ‘‘yes, it should,’’ and in fact, whether
to adjudicate competing claims from different moral
formally or informally, it does—in the home, in reli-
kinds (classically the sometimes competing claims of
gious upbringing, on the playground, and in the justice and compassion, but many other conflicts are po-
schools. However, as children move into adulthood, ssible). This makes it clear that, although a child’s moral
their moral background needs to be adapted to start may be early and impressive, there is much conflict
new and more complex settings, such as the engineer- and confusion that needs to be sorted through. It means
ing workplace. This means that young engineers that there is a continual need for moral reflection, and
still have much to learn about ethics. Still, the impor- this does not stop with adulthood, which merely adds
tance of one’s moral upbringing for addressing the eth- new dimensions.
ical challenges facing professionals should not be Nevertheless, some may think that morality is
underestimated. more a matter of subjective feelings than careful reflec-
Children’s introduction to ethics, or morality, tion. However, research by developmental psycholo-
occurs rather early. They argue with siblings and play- gists such as Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol
mates about what is fair or unfair. The praise and Gilligan, James Rest, and many others provides
blame they receive from parents, teachers, and strong evidence that important as feelings are, moral
others encourage them to believe that they are capable reasoning is a fundamental part of morality as well.68
of some degree of responsible behavior. They are both Piaget and Kohlberg, in particular, performed pioneer-
recipients and dispensers of resentment, indignation, ing work showing that there are significant parallels
and other morally reactive attitudes. There is also between the cognitive development of children and
strong evidence that children, even as young as age their moral development. Many of the details of their
4 years, seem to have an intuitive understanding of accounts have been hotly disputed, but a salient fea-
the difference between what is merely conventional ture that survives is that moral judgment involves
(e.g., wearing certain clothes to school) and what is more than just feelings. Moral judgments (e.g.,
morally important (e.g., not throwing paint in another ‘‘Smith acted wrongly in fabricating the lab data’’)
child’s face).66 Therefore, despite their limited experi- are amenable to being either supported or criticized
ence, children typically have a fair degree of moral so- by good reasons.
phistication by the time they enter school. Kohlberg’s account of moral development has
What comes next is a gradual enlargement and re- attracted a very large following among educators, as
finement of basic moral concepts—a process that, nev- well as an increasing number of critics. He character-
ertheless, preserves many of the central features of izes development in terms of an invariable sequence
those concepts. All of us can probably recall examples of six stages.69 The first two stages are highly self-
from our childhood of clear instances of fairness, interested and self-centered. Stage 1 is dominated by
unfairness, honesty, dishonesty, courage, and coward- the fear of punishment and the promise of reward.
ice that have retained their grip on us as paradigms, or Stage 2 is based on reciprocal agreements (‘‘You
clear-cut illustrations, of basic moral ideas. Philoso- scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’’). The next
pher Gareth Matthews states,67 two stages are what Kohlberg calls conventional mo-
A young child is able to latch onto the moral kind, rality. Stage 3 rests on the approval and disapproval
bravery, or lying, by grasping central paradigms of that of friends and peers. Stage 4 appeals to ‘‘law and
kind, paradigms that even the most mature and sophisti- order’’ as necessary for social cohesion and order.
cated moral agents still count as paradigmatic. Moral Only the last two stages embrace what Kohlberg
264 CASES

calls critical, or postconventional, morality. In these more autonomous, or critical, in our moral thinking
two stages, one acts on self-chosen principles that rather than simply letting others set our moral values
can be used to evaluate the appropriateness of for us and allowing ourselves to accept without any
responses in the first four stages. Kohlberg has been questions the conventions that currently prevail. It
criticized for holding that moral development pro- brings vividly to mind our self-interested and egocen-
ceeds in a rigidly sequential manner (no stage can be tric tendencies and urges us to employ more percep-
skipped, and there is no regression to earlier stages); tive and consistent habits of moral thinking. Finally,
for assuming that later stages are more adequate mor- it emphasizes the importance of giving reasons in sup-
ally than earlier ones; for being male biased in over- port of our judgments.
emphasizing the separateness of individuals, justice, For a provocative presentation of Kohlberg’s
rights, duties, and abstract principles at the expense theory of moral development, see the video Moral De-
of equally important notions of interdependence, velopment (CRM Educational Films, McGraw-Hill
care, and responsibility; for claiming that moral devel- Films, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY.
opment follows basically the same patterns in all soci- 1-800-421-0833). This video simulates the famous
eties; for underestimating the moral abilities of Milgram experiments on obedience, in which volun-
younger children; and for underestimating the extent teers are led to believe that they are administering
to which adults employ critical moral reasoning. We shocks to other volunteers in an experiment on learn-
do not attempt to address these issues here.70 Never- ing and punishment. Kohlberg’s theory is used to char-
theless, whatever its limitations, Kohlberg’s theory acterize the different kinds of responses of volunteers
makes some important contributions to our under- to instructions to administer shocks. Viewers can use
standing of moral education. By describing many this video as a stimulus for reflecting on their own
common types of moral reasoning, it invites us to be and others’ responses to moral challenges. Engineers
more reflective about how we and those around us can also ask the question of whether there are any eth-
typically do arrive at our moral judgments. It invites ical problems in assisting someone to develop the
us to raise critical questions about how we should types of equipment needed to conduct experiments
arrive at those judgments. It encourages us to be like Kohlberg’s.

CASE 25

Oil Spill? 71
Peter has been working with the Bigness Oil Company’s he receives by pipeline. Sometime during the 1950s,
local affiliate for several years, and he has established a when operations were more lax, a loss of one of the
strong, trusting relationship with Jesse, manager of the process chemicals was discovered when the books
local facility. The facility, on Peter’s recommendations, were audited. There were apparently 10,000 gallons
has followed all of the environmental regulations to the of the chemical missing. After running pressure
letter, and it has a solid reputation with the state regula- tests on the pipelines, the plant manager found that
tory agency. The local facility receives various petro- one of the pipes had corroded and had been leaking
chemical products via pipelines and tank trucks, and the chemical into the ground. After stopping the
it blends them for resale to the private sector. leak, the company sank observation and sampling
Jesse has been so pleased with Peter’s work that he wells and found that the product was sitting in a verti-
has recommended that Peter be retained as the corpo- cal plume, slowly diffusing into a deep aquifer. Be-
rate consulting engineer. This would be a significant ad- cause there was no surface or groundwater pollution
vancement for Peter and his consulting firm, cementing off the plant property, the plant manager decided to
Peter’s steady and impressive rise in the firm. There is do nothing. Jesse thought that somewhere under the
talk of a vice presidency in a few years. plant there still sits this plume, although the last tests
One day, over coffee, Jesse tells Peter a story about from the sampling wells showed that the concentration
a mysterious loss in one of the raw petrochemicals of the chemical in the groundwater within 400 feet of
 CASE 26 ! Peter Palchinsky: Ghost of the Executed Engineer 265

the surface was essentially zero. The wells were confidentiality. And what would be the good of
capped, and the story never appeared in the press. going to the state? There is nothing to be done. The
Peter is taken aback by this apparently innocent only thing that would happen is that the company
revelation. He recognizes that state law requires him would get into trouble and have to spend useless dol-
to report all spills, but what about spills that occurred lars to correct a situation that cannot be corrected and
years ago, where the effects of the spill seem to have does not need remediation.’’
dissipated? He frowns and says to Jesse, ‘‘We have to ‘‘But. . . . ’’
report this spill to the state, you know.’’ ‘‘Peter, let me be frank. If you go to the state with
Jesse is incredulous. ‘‘But there is no spill. If the this, you will not be doing anyone any good—not the
state made us look for it, we probably could not find company, not the environment, and certainly not your
it; and even if we did, it makes no sense whatever to own career. I cannot have a consulting engineer who
pump it out or contain it in any way.’’ does not value client loyalty.’’
‘‘But the law says that we have to report . . . ,’’ What are the ethical issues in this case? What
replies Peter. factual and conceptual questions need to be ad-
‘‘Hey, look. I told you this in confidence. Your dressed? How do you think Peter should deal with
own engineering code of ethics requires client this situation?

CASE 26

Peter Palchinsky: Ghost of the Executed Engineer 72

Peter Palchinsky grew up in Russia in the late 19th where he continued his work on increasing the pro-
century. He was paid a small stipend by the tsarist gov- ductivity of workers and published multivolume stud-
ernment to attend St. Petersburg School of Mines. He ies on facility planning for the governments of Holland,
supplemented this small income by working summers Italy, and France. He was recognized in 1913, at
in factories, railroads, and coal mines. This impressed the age of 38, as one of the leading and most pro-
on him the importance of paying close attention to the ductive engineers in Europe. Through the efforts of
living conditions of workers. his wife, he was pardoned so that he could return
After graduating in 1901, Palchinsky was to Russia.
assigned by the government to an investigative team For the next 3 years, Palchinsky served as a con-
studying methods of increasing coal production in sultant to the tsarist government while establishing
the Ukraine’s Don River basin to support Russia’s several engineering organizations. After the overthrow
growing industrialization. He visited the living quar- of the tsars in February 1917, he worked for the Rus-
ters of the miners and found barracks with no space sian provisional government. Following the Bolshevik
between bunks and cracks in the walls so wide that Revolution in October 1917, Palchinsky and other offi-
snow blew over the workers as they slept. Underpaid, cers of the provisional government were imprisoned. A
the workers also suffered from poor health and low number of these officials were executed, but Lenin was
morale. His report on these conditions marked the persuaded to use Palchinsky’s skills for the good of the
start of his pioneering work in the developing field Bolshevik government. This began a decade of Pal-
of industrial engineering. chinsky consultancies interrupted by stays in Siberian
However, because of this report, Palchinsky was gulags for his outspoken views that conflicted with
sentenced to 8 years of house arrest in Irkutsk, Siberia, Soviet doctrine regarding engineering projects.
charged with working with anarchists to overthrow the Palchinsky was especially critical of Stalin’s mas-
tsarist government. Nevertheless, he continued to be sive engineering projects, complaining about careless
used by tsarist officials as a consultant because his rec- disregard of both engineering and humanitarian
ommendations led to increased production whenever issues. Stalin’s projects included the world’s largest
they were followed. After 3 years of house arrest, Pal- hotel, university, steel mill, power plant, and canal.
chinsky and his wife escaped to western Europe, In the latter project alone, it is estimated that more
266 CASES

than 5,000 slave laborers lost their lives and were his life during this time fighting for the engineering
buried in the foundations of the canal. and humanitarian concerns in which he believed.
Palchinsky’s planning studies for what was to be Loren Graham’s Ghost of the Executed Engineer
the world’s largest dam and supplier of electricity in portrays Palchinsky as a visionary and prophetic engi-
Dneprostroi opposed the government’s final plan. All neer. The ‘‘ghost’’ of Palchinsky, Graham suggests,
of his engineering and humanitarian warnings were can be seen in the Soviet Union’s continued techno-
ignored, and the dam never met its objectives. Pal- logical mistakes in the 60 years following his death,
chinsky was next asked to do a planning study for a culminating in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster
complex of blast furnaces and steel finishing mills in and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Magnitogorsk, designed to be the largest such facility Ironically, although praising Palchinsky for his in-
in the world. Again, he called attention to many gov- tegrity, forthrightness, and vision, Graham concludes
ernment engineering and humanitarian shortcomings. his book with a mixed verdict:73
These warnings were ignored, and Palchinsky was
sent back to Siberia. Slave labor was used to build It is quite probably that Palchinsky’s execution
resulted from his refusal, even under torture, to confess
the steel mill, which never came close to meeting its
to crimes he did not commit. Palchinsky always prided
objectives.
himself on being a rational engineer. One can question
In 1929, on Stalin’s orders, Palchinsky was whether his final act was rational, but one cannot ques-
secretly taken from his prison and shot. In secret files tion its bravery.
uncovered as the result of the glasnost policy in
Russia in the early 1990s, Palchinsky wrote that no Discuss whether it can be rational to be willing to
government regime could survive the Bolshevik’s in- die rather than confess to crimes to which one has not
humanity. He predicted that the Russian government committed. (Those familiar with Plato’s Crito might
would fall before the end of the 20th century (which compare Palchinsky’s situation with that of Socrates,
it did). During the 1920s, the number of engineers who also gave up his life rather than compromise his in-
decreased from approximately 10,000 to 7,000, with tegrity.) How much personal sacrifice should one be
most simply disappearing. Peter Palchinsky sacrificed willing to make to maintain one’s professional integrity?

CASE 27

Pinto74
In the late 1960s, Ford designed a subcompact, the things, the integrity of the fuel system in rear-end
Pinto, that weighed less than 2,000 pounds and sold accidents. . . . Prototypes struck from the rear with a
for less than $2,000. Anxious to compete with moving barrier at 21-miles-per-hour caused the fuel
foreign-made subcompacts, Ford brought the car into tank to be driven forward and to be punctured, causing
fuel leakage. . . . A production Pinto crash tested at
production in slightly more than 2 years (compared
21-miles-per-hour into a fixed barrier caused the fuel
with the usual 3½ years). Given this shorter time
tank to be torn from the gas tank and the tank to
frame, styling preceded much of the engineering, be punctured by a bolt head on the differential housing.
thus restricting engineering design more than usual. In at least one test, spilled fuel entered the driver’s
As a result, it was decided that the best place for the compartment.
gas tank was between the rear axle and the bumper.
The differential housing had exposed bolt heads that Ford also tested rear impact when rubber bladders
could puncture the gas tank if the tank were driven for- were installed in the tank, as well as when the tank
ward against them upon rear impact. was located above rather than behind the rear axle.
In court, the crash tests were described as follows:75 Both passed the 20-mile-per-hour rear impact tests.
Although the federal government was pressing to
These prototypes as well as two production Pintos stiffen regulations on gas tank designs, Ford contented
were crash tested by Ford to determine, among other that the Pinto met all applicable federal safety
 CASE 28 ! Profits and Professors 267

standards at the time. J. C. Echold, director of automo- based on an NHTSA study, which estimated social
tive safety for Ford, issued a study titled ‘‘Fatalities costs of a death as follows:77
Associated with Crash Induced Fuel Leakage and
Fires.’’76 This study claimed that the costs of improving Component 1971 Costs
the design ($11 per vehicle) outweighed its social ben-
Future productivity losses
efits. A memorandum attached to the report described
the costs and benefits as follows: Direct $132,000
Indirect 41,300
Benefits Medical costs
Savings 180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn Hospital 700
injuries, 2,100 burned vehicles Other 425
Unit cost $200,000 per death, $67,000 per Property damage 1,500
injury, $700 per vehicle Insurance administration 4,700
Total benefits 180 % $200,000 plus Legal and court 3,000
180 % $67,000 plus Employer losses 1,000
2100 % $700 ¼ $49.15 million Victim’s pain and suffering 10,000
Funeral 900
Costs
Assets (lost consumption) 5,000
Sales 11 million cars, 1.5 million light
Miscellaneous accident cost 200
trucks
Total per fatality $200,725
Unit cost $11 per car, $11 per truck
Total costs 11,000,000 % $11 plus Discuss the appropriateness of using data such as
1,500,000 % $11 ¼ $137 million these in Ford’s decision regarding whether or not to
make a safety improvement in its engineering design.
The estimate of the number of deaths, injuries, If you believe this is not appropriate, what would
and damage to vehicles was based on statistical stud- you suggest as an alternative? What responsibilities
ies. The $200,000 for the loss of a human life was do you think engineers have in situations like this?

CASE 28

Profits and Professors

A Wall Street Journal article reports: In 1999, Akamai won the MIT Sloan eCommerce
Award for Rookie of the Year, an award to the startup
High-tech launches from universities frequently can’t
company that seems most likely to dominate its field.
get off the ground without a steady supply of students,
The article comments,
who are often the most talented and the most willing
to toil around the clock. But intense schedules on the No company has been more closely tied to MIT. The
job can keep students from doing their best academic firm has its roots in a research project directed by
work. And when both student and teacher share a Mr. Leighton [Computer Systems Engineering professor
huge financial incentive to make a company a success, at MIT] about 3 years ago. Daniel Lewin, one of
some professors might be tempted to look the other way Mr. Leighton’s graduate students, came up with a key
when studies slip or homework gets in the way.78 idea for how to apply algorithms, or numerical instruc-
tions for computers, to Internet congestion problems.79
In some instances, the article claims, students
seriously consider leaving school before completing Soon, Mr. Leighton and Mr. Lewin teamed up to
their degrees in order devote themselves more fully form Akamai, hiring 15 undergraduates to help code
to work that is financially very attractive. the algorithms.
268 CASES

They tried to separate their MIT and Akamai Mr. Matkins grades suffered because his work left
responsibilities. Mr. Leighton advised Mr. Lewin to him too little time to complete all of his homework
get a second professor to co-sign his master’s thesis assignments. However, he apparently has no regrets:
‘‘because he worried about the appearance of conflict ‘‘Mr. Matkins says the prospect of being a millionaire
in his supervising Mr. Lewin’s academic work while by his senior year is ‘very cool.’ He loves MIT, but in
also pursuing a business venture with him.’’ It turns many ways, he says, Akamai has become his real uni-
out that the co-signer was someone involved in versity. ‘There are different ways to learn stuff,’ he
Mr. Lewin’s original research project, who sometime says. ‘I’ve learned more at Akamai than I would in a
after the completion of Mr. Lewin’s thesis became a classroom.’’’80
part-time research scientist at Akamai. The article notes that Mr. Lewin’s doctoral disser-
Akamai continues to rely heavily on MIT students tation will be based on his work at Akamai, although
as employees. However, it does not hire students he’ll probably need permission from the Akamai
full-time before they have completed their undergrad- board of directors to use some of the material. The ar-
uate degree. Still, the opportunities seem very attrac- ticle concludes, ‘‘He will also probably need approval
tive. According to the article, Luke Matkins took a from Akamai’s chief scientist, Mr. Leighton, who, it
summer job with Akamai in the summer after his soph- turns out, is his PhD adviser.’’81
omore year. By age 21, prior to completing his degree, Identify and discuss the ethical issues that the pre-
he was making $75,000 a year and was given 60,000 vious account raises.
shares of stock estimated to be worth more than
$1 million.

CASE 29

Pulverizer
Fred is a mechanical engineer who works for Super ! Put bright yellow warning signs on the Model 1 Pul-
Mulcher Corporation. It manufactures the Model 1 verizer that say, ‘‘Danger! Rapidly rotating blades.
Pulverizer, a 10-hp chipper/shredder that grinds yard Keep hands out when machine is running!’’
waste into small particles that can be composted and ! Include the following warning in the owner’s
blended into the soil. The device is particularly popu- manual: ‘‘Operators must keep hands away from the
lar with homeowners who are interested in reducing rotating blades when machine is in operation.’’
the amount of garden waste deposited in landfills.
! State in the owner’s manual that safe operation of
The chipper/shredder has a powerful engine and
the Model 1 Pulverizer requires a debris collection
a rapidly rotating blade that can easily injure opera-
bag placed over the discharge chute. State that oper-
tors if they are not careful. During the 5 years the
ators are not to remove the debris collection bag
Model 1 Pulverizer has been sold, there have been
while the Model 1 Pulverizing is running. If the dis-
300 reported accidents with operators. The most
charge chute plugs, the owner is instructed to turn
common accident occurs when the discharge chute
off the Model 1 Pulverizer, remove the debris collec-
gets plugged with shredded yard waste, prompting
tion bag, replace the debris collection bag, and restart
the operator to reach into the chute to unplug it.
the engine.
When operators reach in too far, the rotating blades
can cut off or badly injure their fingers. From operating the Model 1 Pulverizer, Fred
Charlie Burns, president of Super Mulcher, calls a knows the discharge chute has a tendency to plug. Be-
meeting of the engineers and legal staff to discuss ways cause the machine is difficult to restart, there is a great
to reduce legal liability associated with the sale of the temptation to run the unit without the debris collection
Model 1 Pulverizer. The legal staff suggest several bag—and to unplug the discharge chute while the unit
ways of reducing legal liability: is still running.
 CASE 31 ! Resigning from a Project 269

For each of the following scenarios, discuss the run with the debris collection bag. He accepts
various ways Fred attempts to resolve the problem: the legal staff’s advice and adds the warning
signs and owner’s manual instructions. No
Scenario 1: Fred suggests to his engineering colleagues
changes are made in the design of the Model 1
that the Model 1 Pulverizer should be redesigned
Pulverizer.
so it does not plug. His colleagues reply that the
company probably cannot afford the expense of Scenario 3: Fred suggests to his engineering col-
reengineering the Model 1, and they conclude leagues that they try to convince management
that the legal staff’s recommendations should that the Model 1 Pulverizer should be rede-
be sufficient. Dissatisfied, in his spare time Fred signed so that it does not plug. They agree and
redesigns the Model 1 Pulverizer and solves the prepare a redesign plan that will cost $50,000
plugging problem in an affordable way. to implement. Then they take their plan to
management.
Scenario 2: Fred says nothing to his colleagues about
the impracticality of requiring the machine to be

CASE 30

Reformed Hacker?
According to John Markoff’s ‘‘Odyssey of a Hacker: of corporations. Draper says, ‘‘I’m not a bad guy.’’
From Outlaw to Consultant,’’ John T. Draper is However, realizing there are bound to be doubters,
attempting to become a ‘‘white-hat’’ hacker as a way he adds, ‘‘But I’m being treated like a fox trying to
of repaying society for previous wrongdoing.82 In the guard the hen house.’’ SRI International’s computer se-
early 1970s, Draper became known as ‘‘Cap’n curity expert Peter Neumann summarizes the concern:
Crunch’’ after discovering how to use a toy whistle
in the Cap’n Crunch cereal box to access the tele- Whether black hats can become white hats is not a
black-and-white question. In general, there are quite a
phone network in order to get free telephone calls.
few black hats who have gone straight and become
While serving time in jail for his misdeeds, he came
very effective. But the simplistic idea that hiring overtly
up with the early design for EasyWriter, IBM’s first black-hat folks will increase your security is clearly a
word-processing program for its first PC in 1981. How- myth.
ever, says Markoff, in subsequent years Draper used
his skills to hack into computer networks, became a Discuss the ethical issues this case raises. What
millionaire, lost jobs, and experienced homelessness. might reasonably convince doubters that Draper has,
Now, however, Draper has been enlisted to help indeed, reformed? Are customers of the consulting
operate an Internet security software and consulting firm entitled to know about Draper’s history and his
firm that specializes in protecting the online property role at the firm?

CASE 31

Resigning from a Project

In 1985, computer scientist David Parnas resigned good SDI system.84 His rationale for resigning rested
from an advisory panel of the Strategic Defense Initia- on three ethical premises.85 First, he must accept re-
tive Organization (SDIO).83 He had concluded that sponsibility for his own actions rather than rely on
SDI was both dangerous and a waste of money. His others to decide for him. Second, he must not ignore
concern was that he saw no way that any software pro- or turn away from ethical issues. In Parnas’s case,
gram could adequately meet the requirements of a this means asking whether what he is doing is of any
270 CASES

benefit to society. Finally, he ‘‘must make sure that I As for his part, Parnas regarded himself as
am solving the real problem, not simply providing having a responsibility to help the public understand
short-term satisfaction to my supervisor.’’ why he was convinced that the SDI program could
However, Parnas did more than resign from the not succeed, thus enabling them to decide for
panel. He also undertook public opposition to SDI. themselves.87
This was triggered by the failure of SDIO and his Parnas’s concerns did not stop with SDI. He also
fellow panelists to engage in scientific discussion of expressed concerns about research in colleges and
the technical problems he cited. Instead, Parnas says, universities:88
he received responses such as ‘‘The government has
Traditionally, universities provide tenure and aca-
decided; we cannot change it.’’ ‘‘The money will be
demic freedom so that faculty members can speak out
spent; all you can do is make good use of it.’’ ‘‘The on issues such as these. Many have done just that.
system will be built; you cannot change that.’’ and Unfortunately, at U.S. universities there are institutional
‘‘Your resignation will not stop the program.’’ 86 To pressures in favor of accepting research funds from any
this, Parnas replied, source. A researcher’s ability to attract funds is taken as
a measure of his ability.
It is true, my decision not to toss trash on the ground
will not eliminate litter. However, if we are to eliminate Identify and discuss the ethical issues raised by
litter, I must decide not to toss trash on the ground. We David Parnas. Are there other ethical issues that
all make a difference. should be discussed?

CASE 32

Responsible Charge89
Ed Turner graduated from Santa Monica College unlicensed nonengineer as city engineering adminis-
(a 2-year school) with an associate degree in 1961. trator to replace him and sign off on all engineering
He worked for 8 years for the City of Los Angeles in work. This was in violation of Idaho state law.
its engineering department and took the professional Turner stayed on that new job as long as he could
Engineer in Training exam in California. As a result, to keep an eye on engineering work in the city and be-
he received a Civil Engineering/Professional Engineer- cause he needed an income to support his family. Fi-
ing license in the state of Idaho. To get his license, he nally, he was dismissed, and he and his wife had to
had to work under the direction of already licensed sort potatoes and do custodial work in order to survive
supervisors and be strongly recommended for licen- and to finance a court appeal.
sure by all of them. Because he did not have a BS The Idaho Job Service Department approved his
degree in engineering from an accredited school, his request for unemployment insurance coverage, but
experience had to be exemplary. the city of Idaho Falls succeeded in getting that
In the late 1960s, Turner moved to the city of ruling reversed. The Idaho Industrial Commission
Idaho Falls and went to work for the Department of eventually overturned the city’s ruling, and Turner ul-
Public Works. As a licensed professional engineer in timately received his unemployment insurance.
1980, he had sign-off authority for all engineering Turner and the American Engineering Alliance
work done in the city. His problems with the city (AEA) of New York managed to obtain the support of
started when he refused to approve some engineering 22 states in his case against Idaho Falls for wrongful
designs for public works projects. One such project discharge and for not having responsible charge of
omitted the sidewalk, requiring students to walk in engineering work. The Idaho State Board of Profes-
street traffic on their way to school. The public sional Engineers and the National Society of Profes-
works director and mayor responded to his refusal by sional Engineers (NSPE) also supported him, as did
demoting him and moving him out of his office to a the ASME, the ASCE, the AEA, as well as several
new and smaller work area. They appointed an other important professional societies. Ed’s wife,
 CASE 33 ! Scientists and Responsible Citizenry 271

Debra, played a significant role throughout the 4-year another city. In order for a malpractice suit to be suc-
litigation. In addition to keeping the court files in cessful, the jury must first vote that the original case
order, she was on the witness stand and was cross- was winnable, and then it must separately determine
examined by the city’s lawyers. that there was malpractice involved. Turner won
Many individuals cognizant of the issues involved, both those decisions, with the court admonishing the
including one of the authors of this text, volunteered government of Idaho Falls that it had violated state
their services to Turner on a pro bono basis and sub- law. Although the settlement was large, after legal
mitted depositions. However, the depositions were fees and taxes were paid, it was clear that Turner
not admitted by the Idaho Falls city court that was hear- was not, in his words, ‘‘made whole.’’ But he resumed
ing the case, and the case was thrown out of the court practicing as a licensed professional civil engineer and
because the papers submitted to the Idaho Falls judge happy that he was able to contribute to his profession
were late and on the wrong forms. and to public safety. It is noteworthy that in response
Fortunately, the story does have a happy ending. to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in
On the advice of many, and with a new lawyer, Ed’s 2005, Ed and his wife Debra spent months doing vol-
former lawyer was sued for malpractice at a court in unteer work in Alabama to provide aid to its victims.

CASE 33

Scientists and Responsible Citizenry

As a young man, Harrison Brown (1917–1986) played enabled—and one hopes stimulated—to contribute to
a prominent role in the Manhattan Project at the Uni- a sensible solution of the present dangerous situation.
versity of Chicago and Oak Ridge. In 1943, he It is also noteworthy that the subtitle of Must De-
became assistant director of chemistry for the Oak struction Be Our Destiny is A Scientist Speaks as a Cit-
Ridge Plutonium Project. During the very few years izen. This subtitle reflects the modesty, yet firmness of
it took to develop the atomic bomb, Brown and conviction, with which Brown undertook his effort to
many of his fellow research scientists had serious communicate his concerns to the public. He was
and deep discussions of their responsibilities as scien- very sensitive to the claim that scientists should restrict
tists. After the bomb was used in 1945, Brown imme- themselves to questions of science. Without crediting
diately wrote a book, Must Destruction Be Our scientists with special expertise regarding the social
Destiny (Simon & Schuster, 1946), in which he articu- or political implications of science and technology,
lated his concerns and those of his colleagues. An he responded by pointing out that scientists working
ardent advocate for the establishment of an interna- on the atomic bomb had the advantage of knowing
tional body that could peaceably control the spread about the potential uses and consequences of this
and possible use of atomic weapons, in the space of weapon some time before the general public did,
3 months in 1946 he gave more than 100 speeches and they had given this much careful thought. Con-
throughout the country presenting the basic argu- vinced that the ‘‘man in the street’’ needs to be well in-
ments of his book. formed before presenting social and political opinions
It is noteworthy that on the jacket of this book, about matters of great importance, Brown held that
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying the following: scientists have a responsibility to acquire and commu-
nicate needed information to lay audiences so that
One feels that this book is written by a man who is
they are able to exercise better judgment.
used to responsible work. It gives a clear, honest, and
vivid description of the atom bomb as a weapon of
As for himself, Brown said in his preface, ‘‘I have
war, objective and without any exaggeration. It gives a written as a man in the street, as an ordinary citizen,
clear discussion, free of rhetoric, of the special interna- possessing primarily the fundamental desires to live
tional problems and the possibilities for their solution. freely, comfortably, and unafraid.’’ Implicit here is
Everyone who reads this book carefully will be the notion that this ordinary citizen also possessed
272 CASES

information needed by all other ordinary citizens— understanding of the relationships between man, his
information that, he was convinced, would enable natural environment, and his technology.’’
them to join hands with those scientists who The comments of three Nobel Prize winners were
‘‘have had the advantage of months and years to quoted on the jacket of this second book. One of them,
become acquainted with the problems and to think of Albert Einstein, said,
them as would any reasonably literate and sensitive per- We may well be grateful to Harrison Brown for this
sons.’’ He added, ‘‘As scientists we have indicated the book on the condition of mankind as it appears to an
problems—as citizens we have sought the answers.’’ erudite, clear-sighted, critically appraising scientist. . . .
Of course, Harrison Brown the scientist and The latest phase of technical–scientific progress, with
Harrison Brown the ordinary citizen were one and its fantastic increase of population, has created a situa-
the same person. He also chose to pursue a career at tion fraught with problems of hitherto unknown dimen-
the California Institute of Technology, holding joint sions. . . . This objective book has high value.
appointments in the geology and humanities divisions. Harrison Brown died in 1986. Twenty years
In other words, he deliberately chose an interdisciplin- later, Harvard University’s John Holdren, Teresa and
ary path in higher education. This is further reflected in John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and
his joining the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scien- Director of the Program on Science, Technology,
tists as Vice Chair (with Albert Einstein serving as and Public Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of
Chair) in 1947, his role as editor-in-chief of The Bulle- Government, recalled reading The Challenge of
tin of Atomic Scientists, his service as foreign secretary Man’s Future years before as a high school student.
of the National Academy of Sciences (1962–1974), In a speech titled, ‘‘Science, Technology, and the
and his service as science advisor to the presidential State of the Word: Some Reflections after September
campaigns of Adlai Stevenson and Robert Kennedy. 11,’’ he said that prior to reading that book and
Apparently, Harrison Brown’s commitments as C. P. Snow’s The Two Cultures, his ambition was to
citizen–scientist did not interfere with his commit- become the chief design engineer at Boeing. Moved
ments to ‘‘pure science.’’ He continued his scientific by these books, he decided that, instead, he wanted
studies on meteorites, along with work in mass spec- to ‘‘work on the great problems of the human condi-
troscopy, thermal diffusion, fluorine and plutonium tion that sit at the intersection of disciplines, the inter-
chemistry, geochemistry, and planetary structure. In section of the natural sciences and the social sciences
1947, at age 30, he became the youngest scientist where science, technology, and the public policy
ever to receive the annual award for making ‘‘the come together’’ (www.spusa.org/pubs/speeches/
most notable contribution to science,’’ based on his holdrenspeech.html).
report, ‘‘Elements in Meteorites and the Earth’s Ori- At the outset of his speech, Holdren said that he
gins.’’ In 1952, he received the American Chemical would be sharing his reflections in the way he thought
Society’s Award in Pure Chemistry. Harrison Brown would if he were still alive—focusing
In his second book, The Challenge of Man’s on what we can now (and should have been able to
Future (Viking Press, 1954), and in subsequent writings earlier) clearly understand about the relationships
throughout the next three decades, Harrison Brown among science, technology, and the state of the
argued that technological advancement, population world prior to September 11, 2001. Most important,
growth, the desire for increased living standards he indicated that he would be talking ‘‘in terms of
throughout the world, and limited food, mineral, and what socially responsible scientists and technologists
energy resources call for urgent consideration by sci- should be striving to contribute to these issues, not
entists and ordinary citizens alike. Convinced that just the issues in the aftermath of September 11th but
we have the power, intelligence, and imagination to the still wider ones at this immensely important inter-
deal with the challenges posed by these developments, section of science and technology and the human
he insisted, however, that this ‘‘necessitates an condition.’’
 CASE 35 ! Service Learning 273

CASE 34

Sealed Beam Headlights

It is important to realize that engineering success typi- headlamp. Apparently, the consensus was that this
cally requires the collaborative efforts of engineers could not be done, so the engineers had to overcome
rather than simply the efforts of one individual. An considerable resistance. This was no ordinary task, as
early safety problem in the automotive industry was evidenced by the remarks of another engineer of
the unreliability of headlights due to the fact that they that era:
were inadequately protected from moisture and the
resulting rusting. In the late 1930s, a group of General The reaching of the consensus embodied in the spec-
ifications of the sealed beam headlamp is an achieve-
Electric engineers worked together to develop the
ment which commands the admiration of all who have
sealed beam headlight, which promised to reduce
any knowledge of the difficulties that were overcome.
sharply the number of fatalities caused by night driv-
It is an achievement not only in illuminating engineer-
ing.90 To accomplish this, it was necessary to involve ing, but even more in safety engineering, in human engi-
engineers in collaborative research, design, produc- neering, in the art of cooperation.91
tion, economic analysis, and governmental regulation.
Although the need for headlight improvement was The difficulties faced by this group of engineers
widely acknowledged, there was also widespread should remind us that enthusiasm for desirable ends
skepticism about its technical and economic feasibility. needs to be tempered with realism. Other demands
By 1937, the GE team provided the technical feasibility and constraints may discourage undertaking such proj-
of the sealed beam headlight. However, the remaining ects. Nevertheless, looking for opportunities to accom-
task was to persuade car builders and designers to co- plish such ends, as well as taking advantage of these
operate with each other in support of the innovation, as opportunities when they arise, is desirable. Discuss
well as to convince regulators of its merits. the abilities and qualities of character that contribute
Given this skepticism, there is little reason to sup- to the success of projects such as the sealed beam
pose that the GE engineers were simply doing what headlight. Can you think of other examples of collab-
they were told—namely to develop a more adequate orative engineering success?

CASE 35

Service Learning 92
Current Accreditation Board for Engineering and Tech- reflection on what one learns in the process. Given
nology (ABET) requirements for accredited engineering ABET 2000’s requirement that students be involved
programs in the United States include helping students in a ‘‘major design experience’’ that includes ethical
acquire ‘‘an understanding of the ethical characteris- factors in addition to economic, environmental,
tics of the engineering profession and practice.’’ 93 social, and political factors, the idea of service learn-
ABET 2000 more specifically requires engineering pro- ing in engineering may be especially promising. But
grams to demonstrate that their graduates also under- this idea is important for another reason. Much of
stand the impact of engineering in a global and the engineering ethics literature dwells on the
social context, along with a knowledge of current negative—wrongdoing, its prevention, and appropri-
issues related to engineering. The recent surge of inter- ate sanctioning of misconduct. These will always be
est in service learning in engineering education fundamental concerns. However, there is more to
presents students with creative, hands-on possibilities engineering ethics. There is the more positive side
to meet these ABET expectations. that focuses on doing one’s work responsibly and
Service learning involves combining community well—whether in the workplace or in community
service and academic study in ways that invite service.
274 CASES

Given the common association of engineering reads, ‘‘Engineers should be committed to improving
ethics with wrongdoing and its prevention, it might the environment by adherence to the principles of sus-
be asked whether community service should be tainable development so as to enhance the quality of
regarded as a part of engineering ethics at all. How- life of the general public.’’
ever, it is not uncommon for other professions to in- Although the NSPE and ASCE provisions are
clude pro bono service as an important feature of rather broadly stated, they do provide a rationale for
their professional ethics. This is based in large part concluding that, at least from the perspective of two
on the recognition that professions provide services major professional engineering societies, community
that may be needed by anyone but which not every- service is an important feature of engineering ethics.
one can afford or gain easy access to. Medical and Many worry that students today are part of a ‘‘me-
legal services readily come to mind. But this is no generation.’’ At the same time, however, there has
less true of engineering. been a marked increase in student interest in volunteer
Is this acknowledged in engineering codes of work. Until fairly recently, there has not been a strong
ethics? It is in at least two—those of the NSPE and correlation between students’ academic pursuits and
the ASCE. Emphasizing the crucial impact that engi- the types of volunteer work they undertake. Noting
neering has on the public, the Preamble of NSPE’s this lack of correlation, organizations such as
Code of Ethics for Engineers states that engineering Campus Compact have made concerted efforts to en-
‘‘requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical courage the development of academic programs that
conduct on behalf of the public, clients, employers, explicitly encourage students to seek volunteer work
and the profession.’’ Following this, the code lists as related to their course of academic study and to reflect
its first Fundamental Canon that engineers are to quite self-consciously on the connections.94
hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the Academic areas such as teacher education and
public in the performance of their professional the health care professions immediately suggest them-
duties. Under section III. Professional Obligations, selves as candidates for service learning programs. Stu-
provision 2 reads, ‘‘Engineers shall at all times strive dents preparing to become teachers can offer tutorial
to serve the public interest.’’ Subsection a under this or mentoring services to the schools, students in nurs-
obligation reads, ‘‘Engineers shall seek opportunities ing programs can volunteer their services to nursing
to be of constructive service in civic affairs and work homes or other health care facilities, and so on. But
for the advancement of the safety, health, and well- engineering students, even early on in their programs,
being of their community.’’ can volunteer tutorial services to the schools, particu-
Noteworthy here is the assertion that engineers larly in areas of computer science, math, science, and
are to seek opportunities to be of service to the com- technology that are relevant to engineering. For exam-
munity. Furthermore, there is no qualifier, ‘‘in the per- ple, while at the University of South Alabama, Edmund
formance of their professional duties.’’ This suggests Tsang’s Introduction to Mechanical Engineering
that engineers’ obligations in regard to public well- course included a service learning project.95 Engineer-
being are not restricted to their responsibilities within ing student teams worked with the Mobile school
their place of employment. system and its Southeastern Consortium for Minorities
The first Fundamental Canon of ASCE’s code in Engineering program. Students in this class designed
reads, ‘‘Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, equipment for teachers and middle school students
health, and welfare of the public and shall strive to that illustrated basic principles of motion, energy,
comply with the principles of sustainable development and force and mathematical modeling.
in the performance of their professional duties.’’ To illustrate the potential value of service learning
Subsection e, directly under this, reads, ‘‘Engineers projects for both students and those who benefit from
should seek opportunities to be of constructive service their projects, it is helpful to discuss an example in
in civic affairs and work for the advancement of the some detail. This was a project undertaken some
safety, health, and well-being of their communities, years ago by a group of electrical engineering students
and the protection of the environment through the at Texas A & M in Tom Talley’s senior design course.96
practice of sustainable development.’’ Subsection f This course was intended to help prepare students for
 CASE 35 ! Service Learning 275

the challenges in project design and management that can be expected from these students both as engineers
they will confront in industry. In this case, the students in the workplace and as civic-minded contributors to
were also introduced to community service. the public good.
Team members were undecided about what proj- This particular kind of project—one taken to
ect to undertake until Tom Talley shared with them a completion and one involving direct interaction with
letter he had received from the Brazos Valley Rehabil- those being helped—can enhance students’ under-
itation Center. The letter identified a need for an Audi- standing and appreciation of responsibilities they
tory Visual Tracker (AVIT) to help in evaluating and have both on the job and in community service. In
training visual skills in very young children with dis- this case, the project went well beyond designing a
abilities. Most students, Talley said, end up only build- prototype; everything worked out well. However,
ing a working prototype. However, in this case, he this required very careful attention to the specific
pointed out, ‘‘The students took on the project know- needs of the center’s staff and the children who
ing that it was larger and potentially more expensive were in need of assistance. This is a very important
for them to produce than might be expected of a typ- lesson in responsible engineering, whether volunteer
ical project.’’ or work related.
‘‘We like that it was a project that was going to be From a service learning perspective, two limita-
genuinely used,’’ said team member Robert D. Siller, tions of this example should be noted. First, although
‘‘It wasn’t going to just end up in a closet. It’s actually the students apparently did reflect on the significance
helping someone.’’ Myron Moodie added, ‘‘When we of the service aspects of their experience, this was not
presented the AVIT to the center, we got to see some of a specific objective of the project. Service learning is
the kids use it. It was worth it watching the way the distinguished by it’s deliberate combining of service
children like it.’’ However, completion of the project and study: ‘‘One of the characteristics of service learn-
was anything but easy. One complication was that ing that distinguishes it from volunteerism is its bal-
the team was interdisciplinary. It included a student ance between the act of community service by
from management, which meant that the team was participants and reflection on that act, in order both
introduced to the project management environment, to provide better service and to enhance the partici-
giving the endeavor a more industry-like flavor than pants’ own learning.’’97 This project was not simply
was typical of projects in Talley’s design class. To fur- an instance of volunteerism; it was a class project.
ther complicate matters, the management student was However, it was a project primarily in engineering
seriously injured in a car accident during the semester; design and, from the perspective of the class, only in-
but she was able to continue in the project. By the end cidentally did it involve community service. Never-
of the semester, the project was not quite completed. theless, this is the sort of project that could be
However, the students were so committed to providing undertaken with the full service learning objectives
a usable AVIT for the rehabilitation center that they in mind; many of those objectives were, in fact, ful-
stayed on after the semester. filled even though this was not part of the official
What seems obvious from student comments is class agenda.
that they found the service aspect of their experience Second, a point related to the first, the AVIT proj-
very rewarding. Whether this encouraged them to con- ect stood virtually alone. There may have been other
tinue to seek out community service opportunities projects that lent themselves to service learning
once they were fully employed engineers can be, of objectives that were undertaken by students in Tom
course, only a matter for speculation. Another matter Talley’s design class or in other design classes at
for speculation is that this experience speaks positively Texas A & M. But service learning in engineering as
about the kinds of engineers these students could be a planned, coordinated activity requires a much
expected to become in their places of employment. more sustained effort. A second example illustrates
Tom Talley, at least, was quite optimistic. He said, this point.
‘‘They clearly went above and beyond—that’s Aggie An early service learning program in engineering,
spirit. Someone is going to get some fine young engi- the student-initiated Case Engineering Support Group
neers.’’ This comment can be taken to include what (CESG) at Case Western Reserve University was
276 CASES

founded in 1990 as a nonprofit engineering service or- National Service-Learning Clearinghouse provides a
ganization composed of engineering students who comprehensive list of web resources on service learn-
‘‘design and build custom equipment to assist the dis- ing in engineering, as well as a list of print resources
abled in therapy or normal daily activities.’’98 Accord- (www.servicelearning.org). Three web references war-
ing to the CESG brochure, the equipment is given to rant special mention here:
individuals at therapy centers at no cost. CESG has
Engineers Without Borders (www.ewb-usa.org). Estab-
received donations of equipment from industry, finan-
lished in 2000, this is a national, nonprofit organi-
cial support from the National Science Foundation and
zation that offers help developing areas through-
the Case Alumni Association, legal services from
out the world with their engineering needs. It
Case’s Law School Clinic, and cooperation and sup-
has the goal of ‘‘involving and training a new
port from the medical and health care community in
kind of internationally responsible engineering
Cleveland.
student.’’ This website lists all the EWB-USA reg-
In CESG’s first year, 18 students completed 6 proj-
istered student chapters, along with their web-
ects. During the 1995–1996 academic year, 120 stu-
sites. EWB-USA also has a Wikipedia entry
dents completed 60 projects, as well as follow-up
(http://en.wikipedia .org). It is identified as a
work on previous projects. At that time, CESG sup-
member of the ‘‘Engineers Without Borders’’ in-
ported four major programs:99
ternational network. EWB-USA’s projects typi-
! Custom Product Development Program: working cally involve the design and construction of
with faculty members designing, manufacturing, and water, sanitation, energy, and shelter systems in
providing at no cost to individuals adaptive devices projects initiated by and completed with the
and equipment to help them gain a higher level of host communities. According to the Wikipedia
independent living skills; working with physicians entry, ‘‘These projects are initiated by, and com-
and physical, occupational, and speech therapists pleted with, contributions from the host commu-
in adapting, modifying, and providing devices and nity, which is trained to operate the systems
equipment. without external assistance. In this way, EWB-
USA ensures that its projects are appropriate and
! Technology Lender Program: repairing and adapt-
self-sustaining.’’
ing donated computer equipment and designing spe-
cialized software for those with special communi- Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)
cation, vocational, or educational needs. National Program (http://epicsnational.ecn.purdue
.edu). EPICS is described as integrating ‘‘highly
! Toy Modification Program: providing specially
mentored, long-term, large-scale, team-based,
adapted toys to families of children with disabilities
multidisciplinary design projects into the under-
and to hospitals, and presenting related workshops to
graduate engineering curriculum. . . . Teams work
junior and senior high school students to stimulate inter-
closely with a not-for-profit organization in
est in engineering as a career.
the community to define, design, build, test,
! Smart Wheelchair Project: working with the Cleve-
deploy, and support projects that significantly im-
land Clinic Foundation’s Seating/Wheeled Mobility prove the organization’s ability to serve the
Clinic, Invacare Corporation, and engineers at the community.’’
NASA Lewis Research Center to design, modify, and
Service-Learning in Engineering: A Resource Guide-
improve the ‘smart wheelchair,’ which is fit with special
book (www.compact.org/publications). Devel-
sensors and artificial intelligence routines.
oped by William Oaks and published by Campus
Recent years have seen the rapid growth of ser- Compact, this guidebook introduces the idea of
vice learning programs in engineering. The Interna- service learning in engineering and provides
tional Journal for Service Learning in Engineering models from the EPICS program, course de-
was launched in 2006. This periodical provides scriptions and syllabi, and evaluation tools. It
detailed accounts of service learning projects written can be downloaded from the Campus Compact
by faculty and students. Learn and Serve America’s website.
 CASE 37 ! ‘‘Smoking System’’ 277

CASE 36

Shortcut?
Bruce Carson’s civil engineering firm has a contract with very upsetting to the family. ‘‘What’s 20 minutes com-
the state to specify the route of a new road connecting pared to 150 years of family tradition?’’ objects Robert
two major cities. Bruce determines that the shortest Jones, who has lived in the farmhouse the entire
workable path will save 20 minutes from what would 63 years of his life. The family insists that no amount
otherwise be a 2-hour trip, but it would require the of money would tempt them to sell their home to the
state to destroy a farm house that has been in the Jones state, or to anyone else for that matter.
family for 150 years. Bruce visits the Jones family to Bruce knows that one option would be for the
get some idea of what it would cost the state to purchase state to exercise ‘‘eminent domain’’ and condemn
their home and the land immediately surrounding it. the farmhouse. Should he recommend this to the
Not surprisingly, the prospect of losing the home state? Why or why not?
their family has maintained for the past 150 years is

CASE 37

‘‘Smoking System’’ 100

Philip Morris Companies reported testing a microelec- the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Boston’s
tronic cigarette holder that eliminates all smoke except Northeastern University School of Law, an anti-tobacco
that exhaled by the smoker. Battery powered, it is ex- organization, asks, ‘‘Who would use an expensive and
pected to cost approximately $50. The result of years cumbersome thing like this if they weren’t hooked?
of research, it cost approximately $200 million to There is something grim and desperate about it. This
develop. is hardly the Marlboro Man, getting on his horse and
Tentatively called the Accord, the device uses cig- checking the battery.’’ He also expresses concern that
arettes that are 62 millimeters long (compared with the children might be encouraged to smoke since the
standard 85 millimeters). Users will have to remember Accord would enable them to hide smoking from
to recharge the Accord’s battery (a 30-minute process, their parents. However, Philip Morris replies that the
but extra batteries can be purchased). A cigarette is Accord has a locking device for parents.
inserted into the 4-inch long, 1½-inch wide device. A Consider the following questions:
microchip senses when the cigarette is puffed and trans-
! Imagine that it is several years ago and you have
mits powers to eight heating blades. A display shows
just received your engineering degree. You are in
the remaining battery charge and indicates how many
search of your first job. You are invited to interview
puffs are left in the eight-puff cigarette. The device
with a research division of Philip Morris that is about
also contains a catalytic converter that burns off residues.
to begin research to develop the Accord. Would you
Supporters of this product say it will be welcomed
have any reservations about accepting such a position?
by smokers who currently refrain from smoking in their
Discuss.
homes or cars for the sake of nonsmoking family mem-
! If you have some reservations, would the fact that
bers, guests, and passengers. Although smokers will
inhale the same amount of tar and nicotine as from this job pays $10,000 more per year than any other
conventional ‘‘ultralight’’ cigarettes, 90 percent of offer you have convince you to take the Philip
second-hand smoke will be eliminated. Furthermore, Morris offer?
the same smoking restriction rules in public places ! Assuming you took the job, what kinds of ethical
will apply to the device. concerns might you have about how the device
Critics claim that the Accord will simply reinforce should be designed? For example, would you agree
addiction to cigarettes. Richard A. Daynard, chair of that it should have a locking device?
278 CASES

CASE 38

Software for a Library101

A small library seeks a software system to catalogue its specialist, the library has no alternative but to place
collection and keep records of materials checked out its trust in someone who presumably has the requisite
of the library. Currently, the records of who has expertise. How concerned should that expert be
checked out what, when materials are due, and the (again, bearing in mind that even the best system is
like are kept in a file drawer behind the check-out not completely sleuthproof)? Furthermore, what assur-
desk. These records are confidential. Patrons are as- ance has the library that it is not being oversold or un-
sured that these records are not accessible to anyone dersold in general? To what extent should software
other than library personnel. But, of course, drawers specialists be concerned with determining precisely
can be opened when no one is looking. What assur- what the various needs of the library are—and to try
ance is there that the software systems under consider- to meet those needs rather than offer more than is nec-
ation will provide as much, if not greater, security? essary in order to secure greater profit or less than is
Assuming that no one in the library is a software needed in order to come in with a lower bid?

CASE 39

Sustainability
Scientists, engineers, and the government are publicly engineering societies that do. Under section III. Pro-
expressing urgent concern about the need to address fessional Obligations, provision 2 reads, ‘‘Engineers
the challenges of sustainable scientific and technolog- shall at all times strive to serve the public interest.’’
ical development. Global warming, for example, Under this heading, there is a new entry, d: ‘‘Engi-
raises concern about glacial meltdown and conse- neers are encouraged to adhere to the principles of
quent rising ocean levels threatening coastal cities. sustainable development in order to protect the envi-
A related concern is the lowering of levels of freshwa- ronment for future generations.’’ Footnote 1
ter in the American West as a result of lowered levels addresses the conceptual question of what is meant
of accumulated mountain snow. In Joe Gertner’s ‘‘The by ‘‘sustainable development’’: ‘‘‘Sustainable devel-
Future Is Drying Up,’’ Nobel laureate Steven Chu, di- opment’ is the challenge of meeting human needs
rector of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, for natural resources, industrial products, energy,
is cited as saying that even optimistic projections for food, transportation, shelter, and effective waste
the second half of the 21st century indicate a 30 to management while conserving and protecting envi-
70 percent drop in the snowpack level of the Sierra ronmental quality and the natural resource base es-
Nevada, provider of most of northern California’s sential for future development.’’
water.102 Gertner goes on to discuss other likely fresh- Although this definition of sustainable develop-
water problems that will have to be faced by Western ment leaves many fundamental conceptual and value
states as a result of both global warming and the con- questions in need of further analysis (e.g., What are
sumption needs and demands of an increasing popu- human needs? What is meant by ‘‘environmental qual-
lation. He also outlines some of the efforts of ity’’?), it provides a general framework for inquiry. It
engineers to address these problems aggressively also identifies a variety of fundamental areas of con-
now rather than wait until it is too late to prevent cern (e.g., food, transportation, and waste manage-
disaster.103 ment). Of course, responsibilities in these areas do
We noted in Chapter 9 that most engineering so- not fall only on engineers. Government officials, econ-
ciety codes of ethics do not make direct statements omists, business leaders, and the general citizenry
about the environmental responsibilities of engineers. need to be involved as well. Thus, a basic question
However, in 2007 the NSPE joined the ranks of relates to how those who need to work together
 CASE 39 ! Sustainability 279

might best do so and what role engineers might play. ACADEMIC CENTERS
We offer three illustrations for discussion. The first is FOR SUSTAINABILITY
an early effort to involve students from different disci-
Historically, joint research in colleges and universities
plines in a project that supports sustainable develop-
is done within separate disciplines rather than in col-
ment. The second is the recent proliferation of
laboration with other disciplines. Thus, biologists col-
centers and institutes for sustainability on college cam-
laborate with other biologists, chemists with other
puses throughout the country. The third is service
chemists, economists with other economists, and polit-
learning opportunities in support of sustainable
ical scientists with other political scientists. The recent
design and development.
emergence of centers and institutes for sustainability
represents a significant and important break from that
RENEWABLE ENERGY104
tradition.
Dwayne Breger, a civil and environmental engineer
In September 2007, the Rochester Institute of
at Lafayette College, invited junior and senior engi-
Technology initiated the Golisano Institute for Sus-
neering, biology, and environmental science stu-
tainability.107 Noting that it is customary for new pro-
dents to apply to be on an interdisciplinary team to
grams to be run by just one discipline, Nabil Nasr,
design a project that would make use of farmland
the institute director, comments, ‘‘But the problem
owned by Lafayette College in a way that supports
of sustainability cuts across economics, social ele-
the college mission. Twelve students were selected
ments, engineering, everything. It simply cannot be
for the project: two each from civil and environmen-
solved by one discipline, or even by coupling two
tal engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical
disciplines.’’108
engineering, and Bachelor of Arts in engineering,
Dow Chemical has recently given the University
plus three biology majors and one in geology and
of California at Berkeley $10 million to establish a sus-
environmental geosciences. These students had
tainability center. Dow’s Neil Hawkins says, ‘‘Berke-
minors in such areas as economics and business, en-
ley has one of the strongest chemical engineering
vironmental science, chemistry, government, and
schools in the world, but it will be the M.B.A.’s who
law. The result of the project was a promising
understand areas like microfinance solutions to drink-
design for a biomass farm that could provide an al-
ing water problems.’’109 The center is in Berkeley’s
ternative, renewable resource for the campus steam
Center for Responsible Business, directed by Kellie
plant.105
A. McElhaney. Commercialization of research under-
Professor Breger regards projects such as this as
taken by students and professors is expected. How-
providing important opportunities for students to in-
ever, McElhaney notes, ‘‘Commercialization takes
volve themselves in work that contributes to restruc-
forever if the chemical engineers and the business
turing our energy use toward sustainable resources.
types do not coordinate. So think how much easier it
ABET’s Engineering Criteria 2000 for evaluating engi-
will be for chemistry graduates to work inside a com-
neering programs includes the requirement that engi-
pany if they already know how to interact with the
neering programs demonstrate that their graduates
business side.’’110
have ‘‘an understanding of professional and ethical
Discuss how considerations of ethics might enter
responsibility,’’ ‘‘the broad education necessary to
into the collaborative efforts of centers and institutes
understand the impact of engineering solutions in a
for sustainability.
global and societal context,’’ and ‘‘a knowledge of
contemporary issues.’’ Criterion 4 requires that
students have ‘‘a major design experience’’ that SERVICE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
includes consideration of the impact on design of The first two issues of the recently launched Interna-
such factors as economics, sustainability, manufac- tional Journal for Service Learning feature three
turability, ethics, health, safety, and social and polit- articles promoting the notion that service learning
ical issues. 106 Discuss how the Lafayette College projects can provide hands-on opportunities to under-
project might satisfy criterion 4, especially the ethi- take sustainable design and development. In ‘‘Service
cal considerations. Learning in Engineering and Science for Sustainable
280 CASES

Development,’’ Clarion University of Pennsylvania Stanford project in the Andaman Islands that focused
physicist Joshua M. Pearce urges that undergraduates on rebuilding after the December 26, 2004, earth-
should have opportunities to become involved in proj- quake and tsunami. Behind such projects is a student-
ects that apply appropriate technologies for sustain- led course, ‘‘Design for a Sustainable World,’’ that
able development.111 Especially concerned with seeks to
alleviating poverty in the developing world, Pearce
! Develop students’ iterative design skills, project
argues,
management and partnership-building abilities,
The need for development is as great as it has ever sustainability awareness, cultural sensitivity, em-
been, but future development cannot simply follow pathy, and desire to use technical skills to pro-
past models of economic activity, which tended to mote peace and human development.
waste resources and produce prodigious pollution. The ! Help developing communities ensure individu-
entire world is now paying to clean up the mess and
als’ human rights via sustainable, culturally ap-
enormous quantities of valuable resources have been
propriate, technology-based solutions.
lost for future generations because of the Western
! Increase Stanford University’s stewardship of
model of development. For the future, the entire world
population needs ways to achieve economic, social,
global sustainability.113
and environmental objectives simultaneously. In ‘‘Sustainable Building Materials in French Poly-
He cites successful projects in Haiti and Guatemala nesia,’’ John Erik Anderson, Helena Meryman, and
that make use of readily available materials in the Kimberly Porsche, graduate students at the University
locales in which they have been undertaken. of California at Berkeley’s Department of Civil and En-
In ‘‘Learning Sustainable Design through Service,’’ vironmental Engineering, provide a detailed, technical
Stanford University PhD students Karim Al-Khafaji description of a service learning project designed
and Margaret Catherine Morse present a service to assist French Polynesians in developing a system
learning model based on the Stanford chapter of Engi- for the local manufacturing of sustainable building
neers for a Sustainable World to teach sustainable materials.114
design.112 They illustrate this model in discussing a

CASE 40

Testing Water . . . and Ethics

The video Testing Water. . .and Ethics is a fictional a creative middle way. This video is available from
portrayal of a young engineer facing his first profes- the Institute for Professional Practice, 13 Lanning
sional dilemma. He attempts to solve the problem Road, Verona, NJ 07044-2511 (phone, 1-888-477-
by treating it as analogous to a design problem in 2723; e-mail, [email protected]).
engineering. He also employs the method of seeking

CASE 41

Training Firefighters115
Donald J. Giffels, civil engineer and president of a contaminates the soil, jet fuel had recently been
large engineering consulting firm, was puzzled by replaced by liquid propane for simulating crash fires.
the design of a government facility to train firefighters However, Giffels was concerned about a lack of
dealing with fire crashes of airplanes. His firm was design specificity in a number of areas crucial to
under contract to do the civil engineering work safety (e.g., sprinkler systems, safeguards against flash-
for installing equipment at the facility. Because it backs, fuel quantity, and fuel controls). Furthermore,
 CASE 42 ! TV Antenna 281

no design analysis was submitted. Giffels concluded any responsibility in case of mishaps due to the inad-
that none existed. However, none of this fell within equate design.
the direct responsibility of Giffels’s firm, whose con- While not contesting the legality of this firm’s way
tract was simply to do the civil engineering work of dealing with the problem, Giffels insisted that this
required for installation. was not the correct way to proceed. His company
Nevertheless, Giffels concluded that his firm refused to proceed with the installation until the safety
could not simply let this go. He contacted the design- issues were adequately addressed. The government
ers and asked them how they could justify putting their agency agreed to bring in three other firms to deal
professional seal of approval on the design. They re- with the concerns. Giffels firm’s contract was modified
plied, ‘‘We don’t need to. We’re the government.’’ to provide assurances that the safety issues would
Giffels agreed, but he persisted (to the point, he sus- be addressed. Giffels stresses the importance of
pects, of making a pest of himself). Noting that it is being able to communicate effectively about these
easy to be a minimalist (e.g., stay within the law), matters—a communication responsibility. Good commu-
Giffels worried that one might nevertheless fail to ful- nication, he says, is essential to getting others on board.
fill a responsibility to society. He contacted another Although successful in his efforts to ensure safety,
engineering firm that had installed a similar design at Giffels says that this is not a story that would receive
10 sites. It, too, he said, had been concerned about press notice. However, not resisting, he insists, might
safety when looking at the designs. It contacted a me- well have resulted in press coverage—such as
chanical engineering firm, asking it to do a design from the deaths of firefighters going through their
study. This request was turned down because of liabil- simulations.
ity fears. So, the civil engineering firm asked the Discuss the ethical challenges facing Giffels and
government agency to write a letter absolving it of his strategy in dealing with them.

CASE 42

TV Antenna116
Several years ago, a TV station in Houston decided from the design company to temporarily remove the
to strengthen its signal by erecting a new, taller antenna baskets and were refused. Officials at the
(1,000-foot) transmission antenna in Missouri City, design firm said that the last time they gave permission
Texas. The station contracted with a TV antenna to make similar changes, they had to pay tens of thou-
design firm to design the tower. The resulting design sands of dollars to repair the antenna baskets (which
employed twenty 50-foot segments that would have had been damaged on removal) and to remount and
to be lifted into place sequentially by a jib crane realign them correctly.
that moved up with the tower. Each segment required The riggers devised a solution that was seriously
a lifting lug to permit that segment to be hoisted off flawed. They bolted an extension arm to the tower sec-
the flatbed delivery truck and then lifted into place tion and calculated the size of the required bolts based
by the crane. The actual construction of the tower on a mistaken model. A sophomore-level engineering
was done by a separate rigging firm that specialized student who had taken a course in statics could have
in such tasks. detected the flaw, but the riggers had no engineers
When the rigging company received the 20th and on their staff. The riggers, knowing they lacked engi-
last tower segment, it faced a new problem. Although neering expertise, asked the antenna design company
the lifting lug was satisfactory for lifting the segment engineers to review their proposed solution. The engi-
horizontally off the delivery truck, it would not neers again refused, having been ordered by company
enable the segment to be lifted vertically. The jib management not only not to look at the drawings but
crane cable interfered with the antenna baskets at also not to visit the construction site during the lifting
the top of the segment. The riggers asked permission of the last segment. Management of the design firm
282 CASES

feared that they would be held liable if there were an executive who ordered the design engineer not to ex-
accident. The designers also failed to suggest to the rig- amine the plans.
gers that they should hire an engineering consultant to To take an analogy, consider a physician who
examine their lifting plans. examines a patient and finds something suspicious in
When the riggers attempted to lift the top section of an area outside her specialty. When asking advice
the tower with the microwave baskets, the tower fell, from a specialist, the physician is rebuffed on the
killing seven men. The TV company was taping the grounds that the specialist might incur a liability. Fur-
lift of the last segment for future TV promotions, and thermore, the specialist does not suggest that the pa-
the videotape shows the riggers falling to their death. tient should see a specialist.
Consider how you would react to watching that What conceptions of responsibility seemed most
tape if you were the design engineer who refused to prevalent in this case? Can you suggest other concep-
look at the lifting plans or if you were the company tions that might have helped avoid this tragedy?

CASE 43

Unlicensed Engineer117
Charles Landers, former Anchorage assemblyman and something done right away.’’ (The documents were
unlicensed engineer for Constructing Engineers, was needed before proceeding with property transac-
found guilty of forging partner Henry Wilson’s signa- tions.) Lander’s attorney, Bill Oberly, argued that
ture and using his professional seal on at least 40 his client should be sentenced as a least offender
documents. The falsification of the documents was since public health and safety were not really
done without Wilson’s knowledge, who was away jeopardized—subsequent review of the documents
from his office when they were signed. Constructing by a professional engineer found no violations of
Engineers designs and tests septic systems. The standards (other than forgery and the misuse of the
signed and sealed documents certified to the Anchor- seal). The documents were resubmitted without need-
age city health department that local septic systems ing changes.
met city wastewater disposal regulations. Circuit However, Judge Wolverton contended that Land-
Judge Michael Wolverton banned Landers for 1 year er’s actions constituted a serious breach of public
from practicing as an engineer’s, architect’s, or land trust. The public, he said, relies on the word of
surveyor’s assistant. The judge also sentenced him to those, like professional engineers, who are entrusted
20 days in jail, 160 hours of community service, with special responsibilities: ‘‘Our system would
$4,000 in fines, and 1 year of probation. Finally, Land- break down completely if the word of individuals
ers was ordered to inform property owners about the could not be relied upon.’’
problems with the documents, explain how he The judge also cited a letter from Richard Arm-
would rectify the problem, and pay for a professional strong, chairman of the Architects, Engineers, and
engineer to review, sign, and seal the documents. Land Surveyors Board of Registration for Alaska’s De-
Assistant Attorney General Dan Cooper had re- partment of Commerce and Economic Development.
quested the maximum penalty: a 4-year suspended Armstrong said,
sentence and $40,000 in fines. Cooper argued that
Some of the reasons for requiring professional engi-
‘‘the 40 repeated incidents make his offense the most
neers to seal their work are to protect the public from
serious within the misuse of an engineer’s seal.’’ This
unqualified practitioners; to assure some minimum
may have been the first time a case like this was liti-
level of competency in the profession; to make practic-
gated in Alaska. The Attorney General’s office took ing architects, engineers, and land surveyors responsible
on the case after seeking advice from several profes- for their work; and to promote a level of ethics in the
sional engineers in the Anchorage area. profession. The discovery of this case will cast a
According to Cooper, Landers said he signed and shadow of doubt on other engineering designed by
sealed the documents because ‘‘his clients needed properly licensed individuals.
 CASE 44 ! Where Are the Women? 283

Identify and discuss the ethically important ele- needed to be changed? (Although Judge Wolverton
ments in this case. How relevant is it that subsequent did not impose the maximum penalty, he did not
review showed that none of the falsified documents treat Landers as a least offender.)

CASE 44

Where Are the Women? 118

Although women have become more prevalent in engi- mentored almost exclusively by males, that there are
neering schools during the past few decades, they still few women faculty serving as role models for female
make up only approximately 20 percent of engineering students, and that engineering more generally remains
school undergraduates in the United States. Even this dominated by men.
percentage is somewhat misleading. Women are more As interesting comparisons, women receive 57 per-
prevalent in some engineering fields than others. For cent of all baccalaureate degrees in the United States
example, more than 30 percent of the undergraduates and 55 percent of all social science PhDs, women
in chemical engineering departments are women, but make up at least 50 percent of the students in medical
only 13 percent of the undergraduates in mechanical and law schools, and 28 percent of full professors in
engineering and electrical engineering are women.119 the social sciences are women.121 Therefore, what is
Eighteen percent of all engineering PhDs are awarded happening in engineering schools? No doubt, there
to women. There are even fewer women faculty in are a number of contributing factors to the fact that
engineering schools. The higher the faculty rank, the there are so few women in engineering. But many
fewer women there are. At the top rank of full professor, common beliefs about women and academic advance-
less than 5 percent are women.120 This means that engi- ment in engineering prove to be without merit when
neering students in the United States are taught and the evidence is examined.

Belief Evidence
1. Women are not as good in mathematics Female performance in high school mathematics now
as men. matches that of males.
2. It is only a matter of time before the issue Women’s representation decreases with each step up the
of ‘‘underrepresentation’’ on faculties is tenure track and academic leadership hierarchy, even in
resolved; it is a function of how many fields that have had a large proportion of women doctorates
women are qualified to enter these for 30 years.
positions.
3. Women are not as competitive as men. Similar proportions of men and women with science and
Women do not want jobs in academe. engineering doctorates plan to enter postdoctoral study or
academic employment.
4. Women and minorities are recipients of Affirmative action is meant to broaden searches to include
favoritism through affirmative action more women and minority group members but not to select
programs. candidates on the basis of race or sex, which is illegal.
5. Academe is a meritocracy. Although scientists like to believe that they ‘‘choose the
best’’ based on objective criteria, decisions are influenced by
factors—including biases about race, sex, geographic loca-
tion of a university, and age—that have nothing to do with
the quality of the person or work being evaluated.
6. Changing the rules means that standards Throughout a scientific career, advancement depends on
of excellence will be deleteriously judgments of one’s performance by more senior scientists
affected. and engineers. This process does not optimally select and
(Continued )
284 CASES

Belief Evidence (Continued)

advance the best scientists and engineers because of implicit

bias and disproportionate weighting of qualities that are ster-
eotypically male. Reducing these sources of bias will foster
excellence in science and engineering fields.
7. Women faculty are less productive The publication productivity of women science and engi-
than men. neering faculty has increased during the past 30 years and is
now comparable to that of men. The critical factor affecting
publication productivity is access to institutional resources;
marriage, children, and elder care responsibilities have
minimal effects.
8. Women are more interested in family Many women scientists and engineers persist in their pursuit
than in careers. of academic careers despite severe conflicts between their
roles as parents and as scientists and engineers. These efforts,
however, are often not recognized as representing the high
level of dedication to their careers they represent.
9. Women take more time off due to On average, women take more time off during their early
childbearing, so they are a bad careers to meet caregiving responsibilities, which fall dispro-
investment. portionately to women. However, by middle age, a man is
likely to take more sick leave than a woman.
10. The system as currently configured has The global competitive balance has changed in ways that
worked well in producing great science; undermine America’s traditional science and engineering
why change it? advantages. Career impediments based on gender, racial, or
ethnic bias deprive the nation of talented and accomplished
researchers.122

Recently, a number of academic researchers have as many doubt-raisers (e.g., ‘‘she has a somewhat chal-
attempted to separate the myths from the facts about lenging personality’’), more grindstone adjectives (e.g.,
why so few women hold senior-level and leadership ‘‘hardworking’’ or ‘‘conscientious’’), and fewer stand-
engineering positions. One plausible explanation is out adjectives (e.g., ‘‘brilliant’’) as letters for men.125
that slight disparities accumulate over time to disad- Other studies show that women tend to feel less enti-
vantage women and advantage men. Subconscious tled to high salaries and less confident in their mathe-
expectations tied to gender (gender schemas) are an matical abilities even when their actual performance
important source of these disparities. We expect, for levels equal those of male peers. Men are expected
example, men to be the primary earners and women to be strong and assertive (leaders) and women to be
to be the primary providers of child care. A full nurturing listeners. As a result, women holding posi-
range of studies on the influence of gender schemas tions of leadership often must work harder to demon-
in assessments of professional competence shows strate actual leadership.
quite convincingly that over time, gender schemas Because most of the faculty and administrators at
contribute significantly to female engineering faculty engineering schools, both male and female, genuinely
being consistently underrated and male engineering wish to advance and promote more women, focusing
faculty being consistently overrated.123 Gender sche- on gender schemas is especially relevant to advancing
mas are held unconsciously by both men and women in engineering fields. Virginia Valian, a
women and subtly influence perceptions and judg- researcher on gender schemas, makes this point. She
ments made about one another.124 Experimental data writes, ‘‘The moral of the data on gender schemas is
show, for example, that letters of reference for profes- that good intentions are not enough; they will not
sional women tend to be shorter and to contain twice guarantee the impartial and fair evaluation that we
 Notes 285

all hold as an ideal.’’126 As engineering schools at- One hypothesis is that once the harmful implicit sche-
tempt to recruit and advance more women, it is impor- mas are made explicit, we can begin to address them
tant to assess the ways in which and the degree to at individual, departmental, and institutional levels
which harmful gender schemas serve as barriers to and, at the very least, decrease their harmful impact.
women’s advancement. At some institutions, such as Identify and discuss some of the subtle expecta-
the University of Michigan, such efforts have involved tions both men and women have about gender. How
conducting gender schema workshops, forming focus do these gender schemas influence the advancement
groups, conducting interviews, and collecting survey and promotion of women in engineering? Can you
data to assess the prevalence of gender schemas con- think of any examples from your own experience of
tributing to underrating women faculty in science, men being advantaged and women being disadvan-
technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.127 taged as a result of gender schemas?

CASE 45

XYZ Hose Co.128

Farmers use anhydrous ammonia to fertilize their fields. however, over the years the plastic did degrade and
The anhydrous ammonia reacts violently with water, so lose some of its mechanical properties. Accordingly,
care must be exercised in disbursing it. Farmers’ coop- they put warnings on all the hoses they manufactured,
eratives rent anhydrous ammonia in pressurized tanks indicating that they should be replaced periodically.
equipped with wheels so the tanks can be pulled by After the product had been on the market a few
tractors. The farmers also rent or purchase hoses that years, several accidents occurred in which the XYZ
connect the tanks to perforated hollow blades that hoses ruptured during use and blinded and severely
can be knifed through the soil to spread the ammonia. injured the farmers using them. Litigation followed,
Leaks from the hose are potentially catastrophic. and XYZ argued in its defense that the farmers had mis-
For years, the industry standard hose was made used the hoses and not heeded the replacement warn-
of steel-meshed reinforced rubber, which was similar ings. This defense was unsuccessful, and XYZ made
in construction to steel-reinforced automobile tires. substantial out-of-court settlements.
Two separate trade associations had established these XYZ has since dropped this product line and
industry-wide standards. placed advertisements in farmers’ trade journals and
Approximately 15 years ago, a new, heavy-duty producers’ cooperatives newsletters asking farmers to
plastic became available that could replace the steel turn in their XYZ hoses for full refunds. The advertise-
in the hoses. The plastic-reinforced hoses were less ex- ments state that the hoses are ‘‘obsolete,’’ not that they
pensive, lighter, and easier to process than the steel- are unsafe.
braided rubber. The new hose met the industry stan- Identify and discuss the ethical issues this case
dards. One company, the XYZ Hose Company, began raises, paying special attention to relevant, key ideas
marketing the plastic-reinforced hose to farmers. Offi- presented in this chapter. What are the relevant
cials of XYZ knew, as a result of tests by a consultant facts? What factual, conceptual, and application
at a nearby state agricultural college, that the plastic issues are there? What methods for resolving these
did not react immediately to the anhydrous ammonia; issues might be used?

NOTES Michael J. Rabins, Charles E. Harris, Jr., Charles

1. Steven Weisskoph, ‘‘The Aberdeen Mess,’’ Samson, and Raymond W. Flumerfelt. The com-
Washington Post Magazine, January 15, 1989. plete case is available at the Texas A & M Engi-
2. The Aberdeen Three, a case prepared under neering Ethics website (http://ethics.tamu.edu).
National Science Foundation grant number 3. Case study prepared by Ryan Pflum, MA philos-
DIR-9012252. The principal investigators were ophy student at Western Michigan University.