Ethics, Society, Profession

(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
Prologue
The Unethical Syllabus of the Ethics Course in our Department!

An excerpt from the book titled: “Engineering ethics”, 4th ed.,

by Charles B. Fleddermann.

Almost identical to the titles of the first 7 chapters of the same

book.

 The book from which the course description and topics were
borrowed was not cited. This unethical act is called plagiarism.
 Where to draw the line between exposing an unethical act
committed by your institution and preserving its image?
Prologue | 3
Syllabus
1. Engineering ethics.
2. Ethics and the profession.
3. Accuracy and rigor.
4. Honesty and integrity.
5. Respect for life, law, and public good.
6. Responsible leadership: Listening and informing.
7. Normative ethics.
8. Applied ethics.
9. Student seminars.

4
References
1. The Royal Academy of Engineering, “Engineering ethics in practice: A guide for engineers”, The Royal
Academy of Engineering, 2011.
2. Charles B. Fleddermann, “Engineering ethics”, 4th ed., Pearson Education, Inc., 2012.
3. Heidi Furey, Scott Hill, and Sujata K. Bhatia, “Beyond the code: A philosophical guide to engineering
ethics”, Routledge, 2022.
4. Halit Hami Öz, lecture slides, Kafkas University.

5
1. Engineering Ethics
1.1 Case Study
 In the seven years following the introduction of the Ford Pinto car in 1970 there had been some 50
lawsuits related to rear-end collisions.
 In 1978, Ford was charged in a criminal court for the deaths of the passengers. A criminal proceeding
indicated that Ford was grossly negligent in the deaths of the passengers, which could result in jail terms
for Ford engineers or managers who worked on the Pinto car.
 The case hinged on charges that it was known that the gas-tank design was flawed and was not in line
with accepted engineering standards, though it did meet applicable federal safety standards at the time.
 Ford engineers knew the dangers of this design, but the management constrained the engineers to this
design towards rapid marketing at a competitive price.
 The design engineers needed to balance the safety of the passengers of the car (their duty to the public)
against the competitiveness of its price in the market (their duty to their employer).
 Saving a few dollars in manufacturing costs led Ford to spending millions of dollars in lawsuits and
payments to victims, and uncountable costs in lost sales due to bad publicity.

Engineering Ethics | 7
1.2 The Professional Responsibilities of Engineers
 Several notorious cases that received attention in the past led engineers to gain an increased sense of their
professional responsibilities.
 These cases raised the awareness about the importance of ethics within the engineering profession as
engineers realized how their technical work had far reaching impacts on society.
 The work of engineers can affect public health and safety, can influence business practices, and even
politics.
 One result of this increase in awareness is that nearly every major corporation now has an ethics office
that has the responsibility to ensure that employees have the ability to express their concerns about issues
such as safety and corporate business practices in a way that will yield results and won’t result in
retaliation against the employees.

Engineering Ethics | 8
1.3 Definition
 Ethics is the study of the characteristics of morals and the moral choices that are made by each person in
his or her relationship with other persons.
 Engineering ethics is a body of philosophy indicating the rules and standards governing the conduct of
engineers in their roles as professionals.
 Engineering ethics encompasses the more general definition of ethics, but applies it more specifically to
situations involving engineers in their professional lives.
 While practicing their profession, engineers may encounter ethical issues relating, but not limited, to:
 bribery,
 fraud,
 public safety,
 environmental protection,
 fairness,
 honesty in research and testing, and
 conflict of interest.

Engineering Ethics | 9
1.4 Why Study Engineering Ethics?
 During their undergraduate education, engineers receive training in basic and engineering sciences,
problem-solving methodology, and engineering design, but generally receive little training in business
practices, safety, and ethics.
 We will study various engineering cases to learn what situations other engineers may have faced, and
what can be done when similar situations arise in your professional career.
 The purpose of this course is to sensitize future engineers to important ethical issues to prepare them for
confronting and resolving ethical dilemmas that they might encounter during their professional careers.
 Many engineering education programs nowadays have courses in what is called engineering ethics.
Indeed, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the body responsible for
accrediting undergraduate engineering programs in the United States, has mandated that ethics topics be
incorporated into undergraduate engineering curricula.
 The goal can be summed up using the term moral autonomy: the ability to think critically and
independently about moral issues, and to apply this moral thinking to situations that arise in the course of
professional engineering practice.

Engineering Ethics | 10
1.5 Engineering is Managing the Unknown
 One source of the ethical issues encountered in the course of engineering practice is lack of knowledge.
 Engineers often encounter situations in which they don’t have all the information that is needed.
 By its nature, engineering design is about creating new devices and products. When something is new,
some questions can only be partly answered:
 How well does it work?
 How will it affect people?
 What changes will this lead to in society?
 How well will this work under all the conditions that it will be exposed to?
 Is it safe?
 If there are some safety concerns, how bad are they?
 What are the effects of doing nothing?
 As an engineer you can never be certain that your design will not harm anyone or cause detrimental
changes to society.
 But you must test your design as thoroughly as time and resources permit to ensure that it operates as
safely as planned, and to attempt to foresee the possible consequences of your work.

Engineering Ethics | 11
1.6 Critical Pedagogy
“… [S]ince education has social, economic, political and ideological functions, is adjudged to be having
deleterious effects in each of those respects and has its place in a world that is manifestly unjust, irrationally
unequal and injuriously structured, education should confront these presences; hence, a programme of
‘critical pedagogy’ and preferably in a spirit of ‘praxis’.”

Ronald Barnett, “The philosophy of higher education: A critical introduction”, Routledge, 2022

Engineering Ethics | 12
Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
2. Ethics and the Profession
2.1 Definition
 A professional:
 has specialized skills and knowledge,
 has acquired such knowledge and skills through a long period of training and study, and continues to maintain
and update them through professional life,
 has, as a result of this specialized expertise, significant power to improve the wellbeing of or cause significant
harm to individual clients or the wider society,
 belongs to a professional body which regulates the practice, and
 as part of that self-regulation, adheres to ethical principles which the professional body oversees.

Ethics and the Profession | 3

2.2 Public Trust
 As a result of the power their skills bring, society places great trust in professionals to exercise those
skills wisely.
 Thus, common to all professions is commitment to use expertise in pursuit of public good.
 This creates a critical role for ethics, as the professional’s adherence to ethical principles is a central part
of the exercise of good professional judgement.
 Through this, the professional both earns the trust of the public, and provides good reason for such trust
to be continued.

Ethics and the Profession | 4

2.3 Professional Judgement
 Engineers work in many disciplines, but all of them have the ability to affect societal well-being
significantly.
 Engineers are significant actors in the defense industry. In serving to defend people from aggressors, this
activity has considerable potential to do great good. However, weapons can be used to cause considerable
harm, too.
 When a person steps on a bridge they need to know that engineers have wisely balanced the paramount
importance of safety against demands for building within cost and achieving a pleasing aesthetic result.
 The location of a mining project requires taking into account environmental and other impacts as well as
adequately meeting technical and commercial requirements.

Ethics and the Profession | 5

2.4 Common Sense
 There are many concrete examples which show that intelligent people with good common sense can
disagree when ethics is concerned.
 Modern electronic devices that allow surveillance are often claimed to be valuable in countering
terrorism, but people disagree as to whether the consequent invasion of privacy is warranted.
 Some see the production of wind power as an environmentally sustainable way of meeting needs for
electricity, but others claim the impact of large turbines on the landscape to be environmentally
damaging.
 Do such difficult cases show that ethical issues are merely subjective, with no right or wrong responses?
 They show only that it may not always be obvious what the right answer is. However, even the most
difficult dilemmas have wrong answers.

Ethics and the Profession | 6

2.5 Organizational Challenges
 Professional engineers may face organizational challenges in thinking through ethical issues.
 Engineers almost always work for and with others: clients, employers, and contractors, and may face
conflict between their professional values and the demands made by others.
 In some cases the option that appears the best from an ethical perspective is simply not available.
 For example, it may be best for all businesses in an industry to employ the latest low emission
technology. Yet, if just one business was to take such action, the increased costs, relative to competitors,
could lead to bankruptcy.
 In such cases it may be possible to take steps that change the situation so that the best choice becomes
available.
 Such changes could include, for example, advocating for legislation that limits acceptable emissions.

Ethics and the Profession | 7

2.6 Statement of Ethical Principles
 The Royal Academy of Engineering, in conjunction with the Engineering Council and a number of the
leading professional engineering institutions, developed the Statement of Ethical Principles (SEP) to
describe the ethical considerations that professional engineers need to attend to in response to the ethical
issues they face.
 The four principles in the SEP are:
 accuracy and rigor,
 honesty and integrity,
 respect for life, law, and public good, and
 responsible leadership: listening and informing.

Ethics and the Profession | 8

Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
3. Accuracy and Rigor
3.1 Ensuring Others are not Misled
 Bradlet Structural, a firm that provides consultancy services regarding structural integrity and subsidence
evaluation for heritage sites, has been hired by STZ, a contracting company that has been building a
complex of luxury flats in the center of a market town.
 Work has been halted as concerns have been raised about the effect of the building work on some nearby
historic buildings, including a Medieval church and a street of Grade 1 listed buildings.
 The development was controversial from the outset, being situated so centrally, but the local authority
was persuaded that the design would be in keeping with the surrounding buildings, and would regenerate
the center of the town.
 In an effort to satisfy the planning officers as well as the local media and the community of the town,
STZ engages Bradlet Structural to undertake an evaluation to demonstrate that their building work is not
having a negative effect on the structural integrity of the church.
 Specifically, Bradlet Structural has been charged with investigating the possibility that constructing the
foundations of the development is causing ground settlement and subsidence underneath the church.
 STZ is hoping to use Bradlet’s report to calm local worries, and to allow the building work to continue.

Accuracy and Rigor | 3

3.1 Ensuring Others are not Misled (cont.)
 A team is sent to perform the evaluation. In the course of the team’s investigation, it discovers evidence
that points to significant recent subsidence in the vicinity of the church.
 The foundation work on the flat development is the clear cause of this subsidence, which is likely to
exacerbate the increasing natural problems with the structural integrity of the medieval church.
 Before compiling a report, the team leader verbally advises STZ that there is high risk of further
development causing structural damage to the church building if the working methods are not changed.
 On receipt of this information, STZ informs Bradlet Structural that the consultancy contract will be
terminated, with full outstanding fees paid.
 Bradlet Structural is no longer required to compile a written report.
 Some weeks later, when the controversial issue of the development work is covered in an influential local
paper, a member of the Bradlet Structural team notices that representatives from STZ have claimed that
the development work is having no effect on local subsidence, that the church is under no threat from the
building work, and that STZ have evidence, by implication from Bradlet Structural, to support that view.
 Imagine that you are the team leader from Bradlet Structural.

Accuracy and Rigor | 4

3.2 What can You Do?
 You could decide to say nothing, since the information in your possession was gathered while your
company was employed by STZ, and given the obligation to be loyal to those who pay for your services.
 You could inform STZ that you do not agree with their public statements on the matter of the subsidence
around the church, and that they should reconsider their position in light of the information that your
team gathered whilst in their employment.
 You may feel that your duty to the public overrides your concerns of appearing unprofessional and of
damaging the reputation of Bradlet Structural, and go public with the information in your possession.
 You may decide to go through the official channels, which, in this case, is the local authority, to
discharge your duty to the public discreetly, without damaging Bradlet Structural’s reputation.

Accuracy and Rigor | 5

Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
3. Accuracy and Rigor (cont.)
3.3 Evaluating Risks
 SW Power is an energy company that has been given responsibility for the overhaul of a substation.
 The substation is old, and is long overdue for some serious maintenance and repair work.
 As is standard, another substation will take up the slack during maintenance, but an unexpected event,
such as an abnormal surge in power demand, could cause a power-cut.
 The government regulator imposes fines on energy providers for any disruption to the power supply.
 An energy company undertaking work that significantly raises the risk of disruption will take out
insurance against the possibility of the fine.
 The cost of insurance, which is fixed by the level of possible fine, dictates the intensity of maintenance
work, such as whether weekend and night-time work is to be undertaken to reduce the time-period during
which the power supply is at risk.
 As the work involves significant risk of a power-cut, the project manager for SW Power is required to go
through this process.
 SW Power requires insurance against any fines that they may incur before taking the substation offline.

Accuracy and Rigor | 3

3.3 Evaluating Risks (cont.)
 The area serviced by the substation is small, but hosts a medium-sized hospital, with 350 in-patient beds.
 According to the regulator’s fining structure, the fine incurred for a disruption in power supply to the
hospital is the same as for any residential building of its size.
 The project manager ascertains that the hospital’s emergency generator cannot be guaranteed to maintain
power for more than 12 hours.
 The cost of the insurance is within acceptable limits to proceed without intensive work.
 However, the project manager is concerned. Without intensive work, the substation will be offline for
well over 12 hours.
 Without an electricity supply, many of the pieces of crucial medical equipment in the hospital will be
unable to function, leaving the patients extremely vulnerable.
 While this does not increase the financial risk to SW Power, the project manager feels that the danger to
the patients is severe enough to necessitate intensive work to complete the overhaul within 12 hours.
 As the project manager, you would like to recommend to your manager that they agree to over-time
payments for the overnight work.

Accuracy and Rigor | 4

3.4 How do You Proceed?
 You feel that the best thing is to frame your decision in terms of the responsibilities of the company to the
local community. While there is financial cost to undertaking the intensive work, an obligation exists to
protect the patients in the hospital.
 Although you are motivated by an ethical concern, you feel that the best way to present your decision is
in direct commercial terms. You will seek to justify your decision by citing longer-term financial benefits
to protecting the hospital.
 You worry that the ethical considerations involved in this decision place it outside your area of
responsibility, and you will pass the decision on to your manager. You will state your opinion that the
intensive work is justified, but you will refrain from making a definite judgement.

Accuracy and Rigor | 5

Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
4. Honesty and Integrity
4.1 Preventing Corruption
 Sudobuild is an international civil engineering consultancy that undertakes work all over the world. They
have been assigned to direct a project in a developing country involving the development of a large
hydroelectric installation that would provide power for a town of several hundred thousand inhabitants.
 Sudobuild’s project manager negotiates the terms of the deal with the client, who is the construction
company that will be building the facility. The client approves the contract with Sudobuild and informs
the project manager that funding for the consultancy work will be coming from a donor-backed central
government fund dedicated to the development of energy production facilities.
 A small team from Sudobuild, including the project manager, flies out to provide guidance on the plans
that have been developed and on ensuring that the facility can cope with a wide range of flow variation.
 After the work has been completed, and as the project manager is submitting an invoice, the client asks
the project manager to invoice for twice the original amount.
 The client then explains how this specific government fund operates; the fund is supposed to pay for 50%
of the fee, and the client company is supposed to pay the other 50%. However, key individuals in the
administration of the government fund have developed a practice whereby consultants bill for double the
amount, thus ensuring that the government covers the full cost of the work.

Honesty and Integrity | 3

4.1 Preventing Corruption (cont.)
 The fee for Sudobuild’s services in this situation is £370,000, of which only £185,000 was supposed to
come from the government fund. The client is proposing that Sudobuild invoices for £740,000, and
Sudobuild would then receive the full £370,000 from the government.
 The client points out the benefit of this from Sudobuild’s perspective: they are paid in full, and on time.
 The benefit for the client company is clear: they receive the services without having to pay anything.
 As for the government, the administrators of the fund conceal the procedure from their senior officials.
 On being informed of this unilateral change of procedure by the client, the project manager expresses
surprise, and some anger. The project manager does not wish to participate in the theft of state funds
however “normal” it is, and the manager explains Sudobuild’s position to the client company.
 The client company then says that they do not have the money to pay the consultancy fee. They claim to
have available only a quarter of the 50% that they were scheduled to pay Sudobuild.
 The client company urges the project manager, again, to follow the process they have outlined so that
Sudobuild can receive their full payment.
 Imagine that you are the project manager from Sudobuild.

Honesty and Integrity | 4

4.2 What can You Do?
 You could agree to the process as described by the client company. It is important that Sudobuild get full
remittance for the work they have undertaken, and administrators of the government fund have approved
the practice of doubling the invoice.
 You could refuse to participate in the practice, and accept whatever funds that the client company have
available. You do not want to engage in corruption, but you do not want to sever your relationship with
this company and others in the region.
 You could refuse to double your invoice, and take the client company to court to recover your fee. It is
important to take a stand against corruption, and to ensure that companies face up to their financial
obligations.

Honesty and Integrity | 5

Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
4. Honesty and Integrity (cont.)
4.3 Rejecting Bribery
 Corsey Mining, a large multinational mining company, is currently setting up new gold mining projects
overseas. The company is particularly concerned that it should act responsibly and is looking for
opportunities to invest in local communities which might be affected by its operations.
 An employee of the company involved in this project becomes aware of some land which he/she has
good reason to believe is rich in gold. The land is situated in an area which is currently wilderness. The
company begins looking into the possibility of setting up a mining operation there.
 Under the law of that country, all companies need to be granted a special license before they can perform
any investigative mining activity.
 Due to the complex local bureaucracy, it proves very difficult to get a clear idea of how to apply for this
license, and what criteria the project would have to fulfil in order to be granted it.
 After a series of unproductive meetings with local officials, the company is able to arrange a meeting
with the Mayor of the local town.
 Although the Mayor does not make the official application process any clearer, he does make it clear that
Corsey Mining would be granted a license if the company agrees to fund the construction of a new
hospital for the town.

Honesty and Integrity | 3

4.3 Rejecting Bribery (cont.)
 It initially appears that there will be no other way of getting the license.
 The company expresses some concerns to the Mayor: it needs to be sure that the project is authorized
through the proper channels.
 The Mayor assures Corsey Mining that everything is perfectly above board. He says: “in this country,
this is the way things are done”.
 Imagine that you represent Corsey Mining in these negotiations.
 You are presented with what looks like an excellent opportunity to set up a prosperous mining operation
and also to provide some benefit to local population.
 However, in order to get this operation off the ground, it looks like you may have to bypass certain legal
channels, and to perform a quid pro quo service for the Mayor which could be interpreted as a bribe.

Honesty and Integrity | 4

4.4 What can You Do?
 You could go along with the Mayor’s suggestion, setting up the mine and funding the hospital.
 You could refuse to go along with the Mayor’s suggestion, and look for new opportunities elsewhere.
 You could continue investigating how to obtain a proper license for the land.

Honesty and Integrity | 5

Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
4. Honesty and Integrity (cont.)
4.5 Gaining Trust
 Sudoparts is a multinational company that develops innovative and cutting-edge parts for the European
automobile market. A team of engineers is working on new designs for transmission systems, and a need
has emerged for a new design of constant-velocity (CV) joint.
 The team is keen to set up a research and development (R&D) project based around some new design
ideas, which will hopefully increase the efficiency of the energy transfer.
 The project is estimated to cost £5m: for staff time, tooling of new machinery, and production and testing
of the prototypes.
 However, often with R&D projects there is a significant risk of requiring further funds. In this kind of
work, promising avenues can quickly become dead-ends, and the team would need to go back to the
drawing board. If that happens, it is estimated that it would incur an additional cost of up to £1m.
 The company is going through difficult times, and the expenditure is being closely managed.
 The project will have to be very carefully presented to the board if it is to obtain any funding. The board
has made it clear that it will only grant funds for activities that are clearly structured and managed.
 Imagine that you are the team leader and that you are putting together a proposal to take to the board of
the company.

Honesty and Integrity | 3

4.6 How do You Proceed?
 You could lay out every foreseeable cost of the project to the board, including the significant possibility
of the need for supplementary funds further down the road. However, the prospect of needing further
investment, as well as the appearance of a level of uncertainty, might give the board a reason to block the
project.
 You could omit the risk of further expenditure from the presentation, and express confidence that the
project will be completed on budget. The board will look more kindly on the bid although they recognize
that R&D projects tend to be overspent. Nonetheless, in the current circumstances the board would be
unhappy if further funds turned out to be necessary.

Honesty and Integrity | 4

Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
5. Respect for Life, Law, and
Public Good
5.1 Health and Safety
 Kudochem is a multinational chemical company producing chemicals for the agricultural industry.
Responsibility for engineering issues at the 11 plants located in the UK, Germany, and the Czech
Republic lies with the company’s European regional engineering director.
 In the early hours of one morning, a telephone call informs the engineering director that there has been a
serious explosion at one of the plants.
 The scale of the damage is huge. The main site of the chemical plant is almost completely destroyed, and
damage has been done to property several hundred meters from the plant. There have been some injuries,
but there have been no fatalities.
 In accordance with company policy, an inquiry team is set up, involving company employees as well as
independent consultants.
 After several weeks, the team discovers two possible causes, both relating to a new technique for
producing ammonia, which has recently been introduced in all Kudochem’s plants.
 However, they are unable to determine which possible cause is responsible. Given the presence of the
flawed technique in all of Kudochem’s plants, it is imperative that the ultimate cause of the explosion is
identified, so that urgent steps can be taken to safeguard against similar accidents at other sites.

Respect for Life, Law, and Public Good | 3

5.1 Health and Safety (cont.)
 The inquiry team is very concerned that without this knowledge, it will be impossible to satisfactorily
modify the plants in order to prevent future explosions of this kind.
 They make a radical recommendation: to call a meeting with several competitor companies that are also
using the new technique in their fertilizer plants, in order to share experiences and research findings.
 This would be a significant departure from standard practice, and some senior colleagues with
commercial responsibilities have reservations.
 To call the meeting would entail releasing information about the safety lapse, as well as discussing
sensitive commercial information with business rivals.
 However, it may be the case that other engineers in other companies have encountered problems with the
new technique for producing ammonia, and could offer help in isolating the problem.
 Whilst such a course of action may be unusual in this case, there are some industries where critical safety
information is routinely shared amongst competitors.
 Imagine that you are the regional engineering director.

Respect for Life, Law, and Public Good | 4

5.2 What can You Do?
 You could take the advice of the inquiry team, and invite engineers from other chemical companies that
are using a similar technique to produce ammonia to come and discuss the accident.
 You could persevere with the safety inquiry in-house, hire more independent consultants, and attempt to
ascertain the precise cause of the accident without involving other companies.
 You could consider the entire process as too risky, and reconfigure your chemical plants to utilize a
different technique of ammonia production, perhaps reverting to the older technique.

Respect for Life, Law, and Public Good | 5

Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
6. Responsible Leadership:
Listening and Informing
6.1 Truth and Objectivity
 You are employed by Spectrup, a radio broadcast equipment manufacturer as a sales representative.
 In addition, you work as an independent consultant for organizations in the radio broadcast field. This
work can include analyzing their technical problems and, when required, recommending any radio
broadcast equipment that they might need.
 While working as an independent consultant, the kind of equipment about which you make
recommendations is often the kind of equipment that could be supplied by Spectrup. Indeed, sometimes
you recommend Spectrup products.
 There are two reasons why you might recommend Spectrup products: first, that they are better or at least
as good as any competing products at meeting the client’s requirements; second, that you are an employee
of Spectrup, thus, both have loyalty to the company and would benefit from the sale.
 As an independent consultant, your clients expect you to provide them with impartial advice. Yet, as a
loyal employee of Spectrup, it feels wrong to you to recommend competitor products when Spectrup
products would be adequate for the client’s needs.

Responsible Leadership: Listening and Informing | 3

6.1 Truth and Objectivity (cont.)
 You are aware of this conflict of interests and wonder if you can overcome it by separating the two jobs
completely, in order to be able to only think of your clients’ interests, and not those of Spectrup, when
acting as a consultant.
 However, even if you manage to separate the two jobs effectively, giving entirely impartial advice when
working independently, and being loyal and diligent when working for Spectrup, the fact that you have
these two jobs may affect others’ opinions of you; they may see you as biased when in fact you are not.

Responsible Leadership: Listening and Informing | 4

6.2 What can You Do?
 You could make sure that your consulting clients do not know about your job with Spectrup so they do
not suspect that your advice is biased.
 You could decide either to stop offering independent consulting services, or you could resign from your
job with Spectrup, in order to eliminate the conflict.
 You could make sure that Spectrup is aware of your consulting activity, and that all your consulting
clients are aware of your job with Spectrup, and you could make it clear to all parties that you will act
completely impartially when employed as a consultant.

Responsible Leadership: Listening and Informing | 5

Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
The Function of the University in a Time of Crisis
“… [C]onsider the often-voiced demand that the universities serve the needs of the outside society … [I]t
generally means that the universities provide a service to those existing social institutions that are in a
position to articulate their needs and to subsidize the effort to meet these needs. The university will be able to
make its contribution to a free society only to the extent that it overcomes the temptation to conform
unthinkingly to the prevailing ideology and to the existing patterns of power and privilege.”

Noam Chomsky, “For reasons of state”, Random House, 1973

7. Normative Ethics
7.1 Trolley Problem: Thought Experiment
 Switch Scenario: Standing by the railroad tracks you notice a runaway
trolley. Ahead on the main track are five people. There is one person
standing on a side track. If you do nothing, the trolley will kill the five
people. If you flip a switch near you, it will divert the trolley to the side
track where it will kill the one person. What should you do?
 Loop Scenario: Standing by the railroad tracks you notice a runaway
trolley. Ahead on the main track are five people. There is one person
standing on a side track that loops back to the five people. If you do
nothing, the trolley will kill the five people. If you flip a switch near you, it
will divert the trolley to the side track where it will kill the one person and,
as a result, grind to a halt without looping back. What should you do?
 Footbridge Scenario: Standing by the railroad tracks you notice a runaway
trolley. Ahead on the main track are five people. There is a large person
standing near you on the footbridge. The large person, but not you, weighs
enough to stop the trolley if it hits that person. If you do nothing, the trolley
will kill the five people. If you push the large person to the track, the
trolley will kill the large person and halt. What should you do?
Normative Ethics | 4
7.2 Trolley Problem: Empirical Viewpoint
 In a studya conducted online between 2017 and 2019 (20 months), N = 70,000 participants from 42
countries (approximately: 75% males, 75% younger than 32 years, 73% college-educated):
 Participants were presented with the 3 trolley problem scenarios in a random order, and asked to choose one of
the 2 possible decisions for each scenario.
 Each scenario was presented using a written description and 2 images for the 2 possible decisions and outcomes.
 Switch scenario: 81% (country-level average) of the participants chose to sacrifice the one person.
 Loop scenario: 72% (country-level average) of the participants chose to sacrifice the one person.
 Footbridge scenario: 51% (country-level average) of the participants chose to sacrifice the one person.

Normative Ethics | 5
7.3 Trolley Problem: Neuro-Psychological Viewpoint
 In a studyb involving N = 9 undergraduate students
(56% males):
 Participants judged the properness of the proposed
actions to 60 randomly ordered, practical dilemmas.
 Types of dilemmas: moral-personal, e.g., the footbridge
scenario; moral-impersonal, e.g., the switch scenario;
and non-moral, e.g., which coupon to use at a store.
 While they responded, their brains were scanned using
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
 Statistical analysis identified all brain regions differing
in activity among the 3 types of dilemmas.
 During the moral-personal dilemmas, brain regions
associated with emotions were significantly more active
than during other dilemmas, while regions associated
with working memory were significantly less active.
 Findings suggest that the increased emotional responses
generated by the moral-personal dilemmas have an
influence on moral judgment.

Normative Ethics | 6
7.4 Trolley Problem: Moral Dilemma
 In the switch scenario, it seems that you should flip the switch, killing the one and saving the five. The
reason seems to be that you are trading one life for five, which seems acceptable.
 If you find it unacceptable, imagine that there are 10 people on the main track, and that you are trading one life
for ten, instead. If you still find it unacceptable, imagine trading one life for a hundred.
 The same reasoning implies that you should push the large person to save five lives. Yet, that may seem
unacceptable.
 On the other hand, in the footbridge scenario, it seems that you shouldn’t push the large person even if
killing the one will save the five. The reason seems to be that killing is worse than letting die.
 If you do not find it to be worse, consider the organ harvest problem: You have five patients who will die if they
do not get new organs. You see a healthy person passing. This person has the five needed healthy organs. Thus,
you have two options: you can let the five patients die; or you can kill this person, harvest the healthy organs, and
save the five patients.
 This time, the same reasoning implies that you shouldn’t flip the switch, since your action will cause the
death of the one person. Yet, that may seem incorrect.
 Reflecting on the trolley problem raises the moral question of when it is acceptable to sacrifice a few
people to save many others.

Normative Ethics | 7
7.5 Normative Ethics
 One might ask: on what moral ground(s) can we determine whether a decision is right or wrong?
 Normative ethics is a branch of the philosophical study of ethics that seeks to discover the principles
that determine the moral status of actions.
 Two main classes of normative ethical theories that examine the rightness and wrongness of actions are:
 consequentialism, and
 deontology.

Normative Ethics | 8
7.6 Consequentialism
 Consequentialism is a class of philosophical theories that considers the consequences of one’s action as
the basis for determining the moral status of this action.
 Utilitarianism, also known as hedonic act utilitarianism (HAU), is the consequentialist theory that:
 pleasure is all and only what is good;
 pain is all and only what is bad;
 the utility, or hedonic utility, of an action is the result of subtracting the total pain that is a consequence of the
action from the total pleasure that is a consequence of that action;
 the utility of an action aggregates the pleasure and pain of all affected people and not of any specific person; and
 an action is right if and only if that action maximizes the utility.
 Utilitarianism views all 3 trolley problem scenarios as a question of whether to trade one life for five or
not. Thus, all 3 are morally the same.
 It is plausible that the utility of killing one to save five is higher than the utility of letting five die in order
to not kill one.
 Thus, from a utilitarian perspective, the right actions in the corresponding scenarios are to flip the switch
and push the large person.

Normative Ethics | 9
7.7 Deontology
 Deontology (Greek: obligation or duty + study) is a class of philosophical theories that determines the
moral status of one’s action based on a series of rules and principles.
 The doctrine of double effect (DDE) is a deontological theory that seeks to answer the question of when
it is acceptable to perform an action that is known to produce a bad effect (double effect) as follows:
 There is a clear distinction between intending and foreseeing an effect.
 The action performed must be not wrong in itself.
 The good effect must be intended.
 The bad effect must be not intended, neither as an end nor as a means.
 There must be a proportional reason for permitting the bad effect.
 DDE distinguishes among the 3 trolley problem scenarios based on the intentionality of the bad effect.
 In the switch scenario, the intended effect of flipping the switch is saving the five people. Killing the one
person on the side track is a merely foreseen, not intended, effect. If that person was not on the side track,
you would still flip the switch. Thus, from the perspective of DDE, this action is right.
 In the loop and footbridge scenarios, the one person on the side track and the large person, respectively,
are necessary means for saving five people. Thus, DDE considers the corresponding actions to be wrong.

Normative Ethics | 10
References
a. Edmond Awad et al., “Universals and variations in moral decisions made in 42 countries by 70,000
participants”, PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,
vol. 117, no. 5, pp. 2332–2337 , 2020. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911517117.
b. Joshua D. Greene et al., “An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment”, Science,
vol. 293, no. 5537, pp. 2105–2108, 2001. doi: 10.1126/science.1062872.

Normative Ethics | 11
Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
8. Applied Ethics
8.1 Applied Ethics
 The trolley problem may be of relevance to real-world problems, such as the autonomous (self-driving)
cars, and the involved engineering design decisions.
 Applied ethics is a branch of the philosophical study of ethics that considers real-world moral problems
that stem from private, public, and professional life.
 Engineering ethics, medical ethics, legal ethics, business ethics, political ethics, environmental ethics,
and other similar bodies of ethical study are all branches of applied ethics.
 Reflexive principlism (RP)a is a recently proposed approach to ethical decision-making in engineering
that is based on the intuitive (thus, reflexive) application of four moral principles:
 beneficence: providing benefits;
 non-maleficence: avoiding the causation of harm;
 respect for autonomy: supporting and respecting autonomous decisions; and
 justice: fairly distributing benefits, risks, and costs.
 RP is based on principlism, which was developed within the field of medical ethics around the same
moral principles claimed to be universally-shared.

Applied Ethics | 3
8.2 Case Study: Driverless/Autonomous Vehicle
 Engineer A works as a consultant to an automobile manufacturer that is considering the development of a
driverless/autonomous vehicle operating system.
 Engineer A is assigned to an engineering risk assessment team tasked with making recommendations
relating to scenarios that could arise during the operation of these vehicles.
 The following scenario is among them. In the event of an unavoidable crash, does the vehicle’s system
favor the safety of the vehicle’s passengers? Or does it favor causing the least amount of harm to anyone
involved in the accident?
 For example, does the vehicle choose to strike, and potentially cause a fatal injury to, e.g., a pedestrian,
cyclist, or motorcycle rider? Or does it choose to crash into a stationary object, e.g., a telephone pole, and
possibly cause some passengers serious but non-life-threatening injuries, instead?

Applied Ethics | 4
8.3 Case Study: Viewpoint of Utilitarianism
 HAU offers a straightforward formula for selecting the best outcome among a set of available options.
 HAU is most effective when the available options involve outcomes within the same category, e.g.:
 saving and/or sacrificing lives,
 avoiding and/or causing non-fatal harm, and
 avoiding and/or causing material damage.
 When the available options span different categories of outcomes, HAU requires assigning relative
values to these categories. For example, to be able to choose between sacrificing lives and causing
material damage, HAU requires assigning a material value to human lives.
 In this case study, the relevant factors for HAU are the possible outcomes:
 sacrificing the lives of others (e.g., a pedestrian, cyclist, or motorcycle rider), or
 harming the passengers and causing material damage to the vehicle and other objects.
 One can argue that the second outcome has a higher utility than the first, since human lives are generally
the most valuable. The case study even declares the second outcome as the one involving “the least
amount of harm to anyone”.

Applied Ethics | 5
8.4 Case Study: Viewpoint of the Doctrine of Double Effect
 DDE is a rule-based theory useful for identifying the best decision among a set of available options.
 DDE is most effective when the intention behind each decision is clear and distinct from its merely
foreseeable effect.
 Decisions involving bad intentions and/or actions are easily categorized as wrongful according to DDE.
 When multiple options involve no bad intentions or actions, DDE can rely on the proportional reason
rule to choose the best option. Unlike the other DDE rules, this rule may offer no absolute judgment.
 From the perspective of DDE, this case study is particularly complex, since vehicles do not have
intentions in the human sense. Instead, engineer A’s intentions are modelled through software.
 The intention of not harming the passengers and the intention of saving the lives of others are both good.
Furthermore, the bad effects are not intended as ends or means; they are merely foreseeable.
 Thus, here, the relevant factors for DDE are the proportionality of reasons for permitting the bad effects:
 not harming the passengers vs. sacrificing the lives of others, or
 saving the lives of others vs. harming the passengers and damaging the vehicle and other objects.
 One can argue that the second decision offers a more proportional reason for permitting the bad effect.

Applied Ethics | 6
8.5 Case Study: Viewpoint of Reflexive Principlism
 From the perspective of RP, this case study shows a value conflict among the moral principles central to
each of the following arguments.
 For the non-maleficence principle, the relevant factors are the possible bad effects:
 sacrificing the lives of others, or
 harming the passengers and causing material damage to the vehicle and other objects.
 Both options violate the non-maleficence principle. Yet, one can argue that the second option does better
with respect to this principle.
 For the conflict between the principles of respect for autonomy (the right of the customers/passengers to
decision-making) and justice, the relevant factors are the safety priorities:
 prioritizing the safety of passengers, or
 prioritizing the safety of anyone involved in the accident.
 One can argue that most customers would prefer to purchase a vehicle that prioritizes the safety of its
passengers over the safety of others.
 Thus, driverless vehicles would be more successful commercially if programmed to respect the autonomy
of its customers.

Applied Ethics | 7
8.6 Case Study: Why Ethics Mattersb
 In a real-world accident, a human driver usually has neither the time nor the information needed to make
the most ethical or least harmful decisions.
 However, if a driverless vehicle can account for the relevant information available to it, then it ought to,
in order to reach the most informed decisions possible in such a situation.
 The engineers tasked with imparting this vehicle with the decision-making capability are under no urgent
time-constraint, thus, have the responsibility to impart better decisions than instinctive reflexes.
 Ultimately, these engineers would need to assign values to various actions and entities as best as they
can. Yet, these values are not intrinsic to or discoverable by science or engineering. Values are something
that we humans must stipulate and ideally agree upon.
 Any design decision that involves a tradeoff, such as whether to strike entity x or entity y, requires a
value-judgment about the wisdom of the tradeoff. The design process can be made better by recognizing
the ethical implications and by engaging the broader community to ensure that those values are
represented correctly or at least transparently.

Applied Ethics | 8
References
a. Jonathan Beever and Andrew O. Brightman, “Reflexive principlism as an effective approach for
developing ethical reasoning in engineering”, Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 22, pp. 275–291,
2016. doi: 10.1007/s11948-015-9633-5.
b. Patrick Lin, “Why ethics matters for autonomous cars”, in: Autonomous Driving, Springer, pp. 69–85,
2016. doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-48847-8_4.

Applied Ethics | 9
Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
8. Applied Ethics (cont.)
8.7 Case Study: Promoting Public Awareness
 SudoWatch specializes in surveillance technologies, closed-circuit television (CCTV), and cameras.
 You are a senior engineer leading one of the main projects, which involves developing a system that
monitors live CCTV footage in order to detect suspicious activity, so that a human operator is not
required to monitor each individual camera.
 The system is designed primarily for train stations and airports. The challenge is to develop a system
that will detect people leaving bags unattended or acting suspiciously, while limiting the harassment of
people involved in innocent activities, such as trainspotting.
 You are committed to this work and believe that it makes an important contribution, because this
technology will help to keep people safe by protecting them from terrorist attacks, and will protect
people’s privacy interests as the CCTV will not be watched by human operators.
 However, you also have concerns about the amount of surveillance technology being made available to
private individuals.

Applied Ethics | 3
8.7 Case Study: Promoting Public Awareness (cont.)
 In addition, SudoWatch has recently started producing cheap hidden cameras that are made to look like
smoke alarms, clocks, mp3 players, pens, and watches.
 These products typically sell for under £200, and can be bought by anyone.
 You believe that these products have no legitimate purpose, and are worried by the lack of regulation
regarding the sale and use of such products.
 In particular, you believe that the public is not aware of the potential impact of these products, nor of
how easily available they are.
 You are not involved with the production of these products, but are not happy that the company you work
for has decided to go in this direction.

Applied Ethics | 4
8.8 Case Study: What can You Do?
 You could tell yourself that you have a worthy job, and that you are not responsible for addressing such
concerns about public policy and the misuse of products.
 You could resign in protest, expressing your concerns about the work the company is doing.
 You could continue working on the project, but at the same time speak out publicly about your concerns
regarding the lack of regulation.
 You could try to persuade your company to work with you, with people in the community, and with
ethics committees to consider the ethical issues. You could encourage them to work towards campaigning
for better regulations while, at the same time, developing the new technologies.
 You could work with professional bodies to explore the ethical issues, and to campaign for better
regulations by informing politicians and the public of the technology that is already available and/or is
likely to become available in the near future.

Applied Ethics | 5
8.9 Case Study: Viewpoint of Reflexive Principlism
 The production of cheap, easily available hidden cameras creates a value conflict among the core moral
principles of RP. Thus, a balance among these principles needs to be found.
 For the conflict between the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence, the relevant factors involve:
 The financial profits that the company makes from selling hidden cameras, which enable it to fund other projects,
including the one that you lead and believe can help keep people safe while reducing the threat to their privacy.
 The misuse of hidden cameras for harmful purposes, such as stalking others or invading their privacy, which
enables malicious practices such as harassment, exploitation, coercion, and manipulation.
 For the principle of respect for autonomy, the relevant factors involve:
 At the level of the individual, whose unsuspecting actions are captured or recorded by hidden cameras without
consent, such misuse of the technology clearly violates the right to self-determination.
 At the level of the society, unawareness of the widespread use of hidden surveillance technology limits the ability
to make informed decisions about regulating this technology.
 One can argue that in light of the lack of regulation on the hidden surveillance technology, its sale, and
use, the disadvantages of its easy availability outweigh the advantages of the financial profits it earns.
Hence, addressing the ethical issues through collaborating with the company, professional bodies,
politicians, and/or the public towards better regulations is a better choice.

Applied Ethics | 6
Ethics, Society, Profession
(CoE 421)
4th Year – Department of Computer Engineering

By
Dr. Ali Essam Hameed
3. Accuracy and Rigor (cont.)
3.5 Staying within Your Limits
 An engineer who is trading as a consultant specializes in performing environmental impact assessment
(EIA) for industrial development.
 The engineer is approached by Pellar Paper Ltd. that is planning to build a paper and board production
plant, and is offered the job of performing an EIA for the development, which the engineer accepts.
 As the facility will produce over 200 tons of paper and board per day, legislation necessitates that an EIA
is included as part of the submission to the local planning authority.
 Pellar Paper has already received a scoping opinion from the local planning authority indicating the areas
in which they have concerns.
 The engineer’s job is to describe the likely effects of the plant on various aspects of the environment and
local community, and the mitigation efforts that will be made.
 There are many kinds of environmental impacts that have to be considered for this project. They include:
 treatment and disposal of waste water,
 the visual impact of the development,
 noise pollution from the machinery, and
 effect on air quality by emissions from the on-site incinerator.

Accuracy and Rigor | 3

3.5 Staying within Your Limits (cont.)
 As an EIA specialist, the engineer is expected to have a sufficiently broad understanding of engineering
to be able to make informed judgements about these effects.
 However, one of the areas of concern highlighted by the local planning authority and the highways
authority is the effect of the increase in road traffic caused by the development.
 Unlike the other key elements of this EIA, the engineer does not feel competent to undertake the traffic
impact assessment required in this case.
 The engineer does not feel able to gauge the precise increase in traffic, nor its effect on the nearby village
and the local road network, which includes many narrow country lanes.
 In the past, the engineer has handled traffic assessments in one of two ways:
 If they have been simple or straightforward the engineer has conducted them personally.
 If they have been more complex the engineer has recommended the employment of a specialist in this area to
provide the necessary input.

Accuracy and Rigor | 4

3.5 Staying within Your Limits (cont.)
 The engineer discusses the issue with Pellar Paper, expressing the judgment that the traffic will not cause
significant problems, and that such problems could be mitigated in various ways.
 Nonetheless, given the importance of this issue and the fact that it has already been raised by the local
planning authority, the engineer is not sufficiently confident in this judgment and recommends that a
traffic impact expert is employed to undertake this aspect of the EIA.
 Pellar Paper is not keen on this idea, highlighting concerns about the extra time and expense of hiring a
consultant.
 More than this, however, the engineer is left with the impression that Pellar Paper is worried that detailed
scrutiny might uncover the kind of negative impact that will worry the local planning authority or the
highways authority.
 Pellar Paper urges the engineer to perform the traffic impact assessment personally, and to state the
judgement that there will be no negative effects due to the increase in traffic.
 Imagine that you are the consultant engineer.

Accuracy and Rigor | 5

3.6 What can You Do?
 You could explain that since you do not believe that you are competent to complete the traffic assessment
in this case, you will be unable to continue your work for Pellar Paper unless they engage an independent
expert traffic impact consultant.
 You could agree to complete the EIA, but restrict yourself to matters other than traffic, leaving it
incomplete.
 You could accept the view of Pellar Paper and include your own view, of which they approve, in the EIA,
as they are your clients and you do feel capable of making a traffic assessment with some level of
accuracy.

Accuracy and Rigor | 6