Table Of ContentEthical Engineering
Ethical Engineering: A Practical Guide with Case Studies provides detailed and
practical guidance in making decisions about the many ethical issues practicing
engineers may face in their professional lives. It outlines a decision-making pro-
cedure and helps engineers construct an ethics toolkit consisting of professional
models, a comprehensive set of ethical considerations and factors that help in
weighing those considerations, and analyses of particular issues, such as reverse
engineering a patented process. Illustrating case studies, both brief and detailed,
are provided.
Features:
• Introduces the nature of ethical decision-making as applied to engineering
values and issues.
• Helps readers develop a detailed ethics toolkit that identifies options and
solutions and allows them to monitor and adjust as necessary.
• Features topics such as safety, sustainability, bioethics, diversity and equal-
ity, information technology and AI, as well as critical areas often over-
looked in engineering texts, such as mentoring, advertising (for consulting
firms), engineering sales, and much more.
• Includes 85 case studies to illustrate a variety of scenarios.
• Offers an international perspective with links to codes of ethics from
around the world, including Saudi Arabia, India, New Zealand, Chile, and
Japan.
Emphasizing the importance of the moral life and of engineering as an occupation
with high ideals, this book helps readers navigate a variety of real-world ethical is-
sues they are likely to face in this increasingly interdisciplinary, global, and diverse
profession.
What Every Engineer Should Know
Series Editor
Phillip A. Laplante
Pennsylvania State University
What Every Engineer Should Know about Career Management
Mike Ficco
What Every Engineer Should Know about Starting a High-Tech Business
Venture
Eric Koester
What Every Engineer Should Know about MATLAB® and Simulink®
Adrian B. Biran
Green Entrepreneur Handbook: The Guide to Building and Growing a Green
and Clean Business
Eric Koester
What Every Engineer Should Know about Cyber Security and Digital
Forensics
Joanna F. DeFranco
What Every Engineer Should Know about Modeling and Simulation
Raymond J. Madachy and Daniel Houston
What Every Engineer Should Know about Excel, Second Edition
J.P. Holman and Blake K. Holman
Technical Writing: A Practical Guide for Engineers, Scientists, and
Nontechnical Professionals, Second Edition
Phillip A. Laplante
What Every Engineer Should Know About the Internet of Things
Joanna F. DeFranco and Mohamad Kassab
What Every Engineer Should Know about Software Engineering
Phillip A. Laplante and Mohamad Kassab
What Every Engineer Should Know About Cyber Security and Digital
Forensics
Joanna F. DeFranco and Bob Maley
Ethical Engineering: A Practical Guide with Case Studies
Eugene Schlossberger
What Every Engineer Should Know About Data-Driven Analytics
Phillip A. Laplante and Satish Mahadevan Srinivasan
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/What-
Every-Engineer-Should-Know/book-series/CRCWEESK
Ethical Engineering
A Practical Guide with Case Studies
Eugene Schlossberger
Designed cover image: © Shutterstock
First edition published 2023
by CRC Press
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
and by CRC Press
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
© 2023 Eugene Schlossberger
Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schlossberger, Eugene, 1951- author.
Title: Ethical engineering : a practical guide with case studies / Eugene
Schlossberger.
Description: First edition. | Boca Raton : CRC Press, 2023. | Series: What every engineer should know
| Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Ethical Engineering: A Practical Guide
with Case Studies provides detailed and practical guidance in making decisions about the many ethical
issues practicing engineers may face in their professional lives. It outlines a decision-making procedure
and helps engineers construct an ethics toolkit consisting of professional models, a comprehensive set of
ethical considerations and factors that help in weighing those considerations, and analyses of particular
issues, such as reverse engineering a patented process. Illustrating case studies, both brief and detailed, are
provided. Features: Introduces the nature of ethical decision making as applied to engineering values and
issues. Helps readers develop a detailed ethics toolkit that identifies options and solutions and allows them
to monitor and adjust as necessary. Features topics such as safety, sustainability, bioethics, diversity and
equality, information technology and AI, as well as critical areas often overlooked in engineering texts,
such as mentoring, advertising (for consulting firms), engineering sales, and much more. Includes more
than 50 case studies to illustrate a variety of scenarios. Offers an international perspective with codes
of ethics from around the world, including Saudi Arabia, India, New Zealand, Chile, and Japan. Adds
further cases and samples for discussion and a summary of key ideas. Emphasizing the importance of the
moral life and of engineering as an occupation with high ideals, this book helps readers navigate a variety
of real-world ethical issues they are likely to face in this increasingly interdisciplinary, global, and diverse
profession”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022045262 (print) | LCCN 2022045263 (ebook) | ISBN
9781032151137 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032151120 (paperback) | ISBN
9781003242574 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Engineering ethics.
Classification: LCC TA157 .S38323 2023 (print) | LCC TA157 (ebook) | DDC
620.001--dc23/eng/20221202
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022045262
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022045263
ISBN: 9781032151137 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032151120 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003242574 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003242574
Typeset in Minion
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
For my family: Kurt, Else, Norman, Maricar,
Erin, Noah, Rachel, and Moss
Contents
What Every Engineer Should Know: Series Statement ......................xv
Preface .................................................................................................xvii
Acknowledgments ...............................................................................xix
About the Author .................................................................................xxi
PART I Introduction and Ethical Decision-Making
Chapter 1 The Nature of Engineering Ethics ....................................3
What This Book Is About ............................................................3
Why Ethics for Engineers? ..........................................................4
A Revealing Case ..........................................................................9
Cut-Throat v. Community Workplaces ...............................10
The Consumer Life v. The Life of Values ............................12
What Should I Do? ................................................................15
Chapter 2 Ethical Decision-Making .................................................21
The Nature of Ethical Decision-Making .................................22
Making Ethical Decisions .........................................................24
A Template for Moral Decision-Making .................................26
Preparation .............................................................................27
Creating a Toolkit Rationally: Looking at the
Arguments .............................................................................30
Three Rational Responses to an Argument ..................30
Four Rational Responses to a Counterexample ............31
Picture Building and the Moral Edifice .........................33
Relativism ...........................................................................35
Making Particular Decisions: The Five-Step Process .......37
vii
viii • Contents
PART II Sources of Ethical Decision-Making
Chapter 3 The Engineering Way ......................................................49
What is Engineering...................................................................49
Design Ethics and Cultural Appropriation.............................52
Thinking like an Engineer ........................................................54
Characteristics of the Compleat Engineer .........................55
The Engineering Process .......................................................59
Models of the Profession ............................................................61
Models of the Engineering Profession ................................63
Engineering and Business .........................................................65
Chapter 4 Values of the Engineering Profession .............................75
Technology as Practical Wisdom .............................................75
Safety ............................................................................................79
Extent of a Risk ......................................................................79
Balancing Risks against Benefits ........................................80
Nature of Risks .......................................................................82
Publicizing Risks ....................................................................82
Human Progress ........................................................................90
Clean, Clear Decision-Making .................................................91
Community .................................................................................92
Partnership with Nature ...........................................................96
Chapter 5 Additional Ethical Sources (Part 1) ..............................109
When to Fight a Battle .............................................................109
Treating Others Fairly and Well .............................................112
Illustrating Cases .................................................................113
The Duty to Leave the World No Worse ...............................116
World Religious Traditions ....................................................122
Promoting Good Consequences ............................................128
Illustrating Example ............................................................130
The Golden Rule .......................................................................130
Universality ...............................................................................133
Proclamative Principle (Duty to Set a Moral
Precedent) ..................................................................................137
Case Studies ...............................................................................138
Contents • ix
Respect for Persons ...................................................................140
Rights ..........................................................................................141
Autonomy ..................................................................................145
Chapter 6 Additional Ethical Sources (Part 2) ..............................153
Personal Values, Moral Beauty, and
The Good Life ............................................................................153
Virtues ........................................................................................156
The Precautionary Principle ....................................................156
Responsibility (Dual-Use) .......................................................158
The Nature of Moral Responsibility ..................................159
Promoting Good Consequences (The Utilitarian
Perspective) ...........................................................................160
Safety and Future Generations ..........................................161
Leaving the World No Worse
Than One Found it ...............................................................162
The Weak Samaritan Principle ..........................................163
Respect for Autonomy .........................................................164
The Doctrine of Intervening Wills
(Novus Actus Interveniens) .................................................165
Four Concluding Questions ...............................................166
Two Principles of Institutional Responsibility .....................167
Institutional Duties ..................................................................168
When to Break the Rules .........................................................170
Codes of Ethics..........................................................................177
Contents of Codes of Ethics ...............................................178
The Role of Codes of Ethics ................................................179
PART III Problems and Issues in Engineering
Chapter 7 Honesty and Professionalism ........................................185
Whistleblowing .........................................................................185
Competence ...............................................................................197
Keeping Accurate Records and Obeying the Law................198
Sales, Honesty, and Disclosure of
Product’s Liabilities .................................................................202
Consulting v. Adversarial Sales.........................................203
