Download Duty Ethics

Temel kavramlar
Many ethical problems are encountered by engineers in the course of their
professional life.
Ethical cases may involve
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Public safety (kamu güvenliği): prevention of and protection from events that could
jeopardize the safety of the general public from significant danger, injury, harm, or
damage, such as crimes or disasters (natural or man-made).
Bribery (rüşvet): Act of implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the
recepient.
Fraud (dolandırıcılık): Intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage
another person.
Environmental protection (çevre koruma): Practice of protecting the environment
Fairness (tarafsızlık): Being free from bias or injustice
Honesty in research and testing (dürüstlük): Avoiding falsification of data, adoption
and reproduction of another author without due acknowledgment, etc.
Conflicts of interest (çıkar çelişmesi): Occurs when an individual or an organization
involves in multiple interests
During their undergraduate training engineering students learn basic and
engineering sciences and problem solving methodologies. However they
receive very little information on ethics and safety.
ABET (Accreditation Board for Undergraduate Engineering Programs) has
mandated that ethics topic be incorporated into undergraduate engineering
curricula.
A good place to start the topic of engineering ethics is with definitions of
ethics and engineering ethics.
Ethics is the study of the characteristics of morals. Ethics deals with the moral
choices that are made by each person in his or her relationship with other
persons. Since engineering activities produce and propose goods that are
used by other people, engineers are concerned with professional ethics.
Engineering ethics is the rules and standards governing the conduct of
engineers in their role as professionals. Engineering ethics is a body of
philosophy indicating the ways that engineers should conduct themselves in
their professional capacity.
MÜHENDİSLİK ETİĞİ NEDEN ÖNEMLİDİR?
Several notorious cases that have received a great deal of media attention
in the past few years have led engineers to gain an increased sense of their
professional responsibilities. Engineers realize how their technical work
has impacts on the society.
Increase in awareness caused every major corporation to open an “ethics
office” that has the responsibility to ensure that employees have the ability
to express their concerns about safety and corporate business practices.
These offices also try to foster an ethical culture within the corporate.
Students should study ethics because they need to get sensitized to ethical
issues before they are confronted with professional problems. Past
experiences may help us to increase our sensitivity to ethical problems and
show us ways to find sound solutions.
ETİK DÜŞÜNCENİN TEMELLERİ
The origins of ethical thought may be linked to Judeo-Christian tradition.
On the other hand, non-western socities as well have developed their own
ethical principals on a similar basis.
For some people ethical principals are rooted in religious beliefs. But this is
not true for others. A very ethical person may be non-religious. Or viceversa: a religious person may not always behave ethical.
ETİK VE HUKUK
The practice of engineering and business is governed by many laws on the
international, state and local level. There is also a distinction between
what is ethical and what is legal. Many things that are legal may not be
considered ethical. For many years many toxic gases were considered legal
and were utilized without any regulation whatsoever.
As an engineer you are minimally safe when you follow the rquirements of
applicable laws. But in engineering ethics, we seek to go beyond the
dictates of the law. Our interest is in areas where ethical principals conflict
and there is no legal guidance for how to resolve the conflict.
ETİK PROBLEMLERİ TASARIM PROBLEMLERİNE BENZER
Ethics problems may not look very concrete to engineering students. The
ethics problems are more open ended and have rarely a “correct” answer
that will bearrived by everyone in the classroom. However in terms of
problem solving techniques, design problems are very similar to ethics
problems. Both type of problems require a large body of knowledge and
analytical skills.
PROFESYONELLİK ve ETİK KURALLARI
(CODES of ETHICS)
When confronted by an ethical problem what sources are available to an
engineer?
Modern professions use COE prepared by various professional societies.
These codes help and guide practitioners in making sound decisions when
they confront professional problems.
1) How can we define “profession”?
2) Does engineering fit into this definition?
MÜHENDİSLİK BİR MESLEK MİDİR?
Profession (Meslek)
Job (İş): Any work for hire regarless of the skill level involved.
Occupation (Meşguliyet): Employment through which someone makes a
living
Engineering is definitely a “job” and an “occupation”. However it is more
than a job and also more than an occupation regarding the skills and
responsibilities it inherits
MESLEK TANIMI
Attributes of a profession include:
1) The work requires sophisticated skills, the use of judgment and the exercise
of discretion. Also, the work is not routine and may not be mechanized.
Yapılan iş sofistike yetenek, otonom karar verme ve ayırdetme kabiliyeti
gerektirir.
2) Membership in the profession requires extensive formal education, not
simply practical training and apprenticeship. Mesleğe üyelik çıraklıktan
ziyade yoğun bir formel eğitim gerektirir.
3) The public allows special societes or organizations that are controlled by
members of the profession to set standards for admission to the
profession, to set standards of conduct for members, and to enforce these
standards. Kamuoyu bazı örgüt ve organizasyonların üyelerine
meslekleriyle ilgili konularda standartlar belirleme serbestisi tanır
4) Significant public good results from the practice of the profession.
Mesleğin icrası sonucunda kamu yararı ortaya çıkar.
TIP
 It requires sophisticated skill that cannot be mechanized. It also requires
judgment (treatment plans for individual patients)
 It requires discretion , the duty not to divulge information given in
confidence by the patient to the physician.
 Medicin has special societies, the American Medicin Association (AMA) or
Türk Tabipleri Birliği (TMA) to which a large fraction of practising physicians
belong. They set standards for practising the profession and enforces
codes of ethical behaviour for its members.
 Healing the sick and helping to prevent diseases clearly involve the public
good.
HUKUK
 Law involves sophisticated skills required through extensive formal training
 It requires discretion.
 It has special societies: ABA, TBB
 And it works for public good (!?)
ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION
 Certainly requires extensive formal training and sophisticated skills. It
requires judgment: how to use available materials, components, devices,
etc. To reach a specified objective.
 Discretion is required in engineering. Engineers are required to keep their
employers’ and clients’ intellectual property and business confidential.
 Also a primary concern of engineers is the safety of the public that will use
the products he/she designs.
 Engineering fields have special professional societies: IEEE, ASME, NSPE,
etc… However they are weak with respect to ABA or AMA
CODES OF ETHICS
Professional societies have their own «codes of ethics»
Ethical codes may also be created by non-professional organizations such
as universities.
These codes express the rights, duties and obligations of its members.
A code of ethics provides a framework for ethical judgment for a
professional. It does not cover all possible ethical situations that can be
encountered. It only serves as a starting point.
On the other hand an ethical code is not a recipe for ethical behaviour.
Moreover it is not a legal code. It only deals with choices. One may not be
arrested if he/she disobeys codes of ethics. Expulsion from the society may
be the case but even so the engineer (in this case) does not lose his/her
ability to practise the profession.
The code provides a little space for an employee where he/she could fight
against the employer’s request to behave unethically.
Codes of Ethics for mechanical enginners in Turkey:
TMMOB (Türk Mimar ve Mühendis Odaları Birliği) Mesleki Davranış İlkeleri:
http://www.maden.org.tr/resimler/ekler/3a7769efbcc8310_ek.pdf
A BRIEF HISTORY of ETHICAL THOUGHT
The origins of western moral thought are based on ancient Greek
philosophers as well as on ancient religious thinking and writing.
The written sources of Judaistic moral tradition are based on Torah and Old
Testament. Greek ethical thought originated with the famous
philosophers; Socrates and Aristotle (Nichomachean Ethics).
Aristotelian Ethics consists of ten books (scrolls) which
were taught by him at the Lykeion and were dedicated
to his son Nichomacus.
The Nicomachean Ethics is widely considered one of
the most important historical philosophical works, and
had an important impact upon the European Middle
Ages, becoming one of the core works of medieval
philosophy. It therefore indirectly became critical in the
development of all modern philosophy as well as
European law and theology.
Socratic question: How men should best live?
Pre-socratic philosophy was purely theoretical!
Socrates (through Platon) and later on Aristotle turned
philosophy into a tool in the quest for good-man.
Many philosophers (Locke, Kant, Mill) have turned their attention to ethics
and morals and have tried to provide insight into these concepts.
These philosophers acknowledged that moral principals are universal and
claimed that they could be applicable to secular settings (French
Revolution).
ETİK ÜZERİNE TEORİLER
Ethical problem solving is not as cut and dried as problem solving in most
engineering classes. In engineering classes usually there are only one
theory that can be utilized in the process of problem solving. On the other
hand ethical problem solving is based upon several theories.
This fact does not reflect the fuzziness of the situation but rather the
complexity and diversity of ethics. Having multiple theories does enrich
the process allowing problems to be looked at from different angles.
Basic ethical problem solving technique utilizes different theories and
approaches to analyze the problem and then try to determine the best
solution.
What is a moral theory?
Moral theory defines terms in uniform ways and links ideas and problems
in consistent ways.
There four moral theories that will be considered here:
1) Utilitarianism (Faydacılık)
2) Duty ethics (Görev etiği)
3) Rights ethics (Hak etiği)
4) Virtue ethics (Erdem etiği)
Utilitarianism (Faydacılık):
It seeks to produce the most utility, defined as a balance between good
and bad consequences of an action. , taking into account the consequences
for everyone affected.
Duty Ethics (…..):
Duty ethics contends that there are duties that should be performed (ex:
the duty of treating others fairly or the duty of not to injure others)
regardless of whether these acts lead to the most good.
Rights Ethics (…..):
Rights etics emphasizes that we all have moral rights, and any action that
violates these rights is ethically unacceptable.
Virtue Ethics (…..):
This ethical theory focuses on the person that we should strive to be. For
this ethics theory the only actions that manifest good character traits
(virtues) are the right actions.
Utilitarianism (Faydacılık):
Actions are good only if they maximize human well-being. The emphasis in
utilitarianism is not to maximize the well-being of the individual but the
well-being of the society as a whole. In this respect it is a collectivist
approach.
Example: Hydroelectric dams often lead to great
benefit to society by providing stable supplies of
drinking water, flood control and recreational
oppurtunities. However this is done at the
expense of people leaving their homeland.
Utilitarianism tries to balance the needs of society with the needs of the
individual, with an emphasis on what will provide the most benefit to the
most people.
Utilitarianism is analogue to many engineering analysis methods; including
risk-benefit analysis or cost-benefit analysis.
However as good as the utilitarianism sounds, there are some inherent
problems with it. Sometimes what is good for the society may be bad for a
particular individual or a group of individuals.
Example: WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) near Carlsbad, New Mexico.
WIPP was designed to be a repository for nuclear waste generated in the
USA.It consisted of a system of tunnels bored into underground salt
formations which are considered to be extremely stable against water
incursion and eventual leakage of nuclear waste into underground water
sources. But then what about the risks of transportation of nuclear waste
products to the site at New Mexico?
Utilitarian approach: Solution of this waste disposal problem will benefit
society by providing improved health care and plentiful electricity. The
slight potential ofor adverse health effects for individuals living near the
transportation routes is far outweighed by the overall benefits to society.
So WIPP should be allowed to open.
As this example demonstrates, the utilitarian approach seem to ignore the
needs of individuals, especially if these needs seem relatively insignificant.
Another objection to utilitarianism is that its implementation depends
greatly on knowing what will lead to the most good. Frequently, it is
impossible to know a priori exactly what the consequences of an action
are. So maximizing the benefit to society involves guesswork.
Cost - Benefit Analysis (Fayda-Zarar Analizi):
One tool used in engineering analysis, especially when trying to determine
whether a project is worthwhile doing is cost-benefit analysis.
In cost-benefit analysis, the costs of project are assessed, as are the
benefits. Only those projects with the highest ratio of benefits to costs are
implemented.
This principle is similar to the utilitarian goal of maximizing the overall
good.
Duty and Rights Ethics:
These theories hold that those actions that respect
the rights of individuals are good. Here, good
consequences for society as a whole are not the
only moral consideration.
The major proponent of duty ethics is Immanual
Kant (1724-1804). He held that moral duties are
fundamental. Duties like: be honest, do not cause
suffering to people, be fair to others, etc.
When one’s duties are recognized, the
ethically correct moral actions are obvious.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Rights ethics was largely formulated by
John Locke (1632-1704).
He manifested that humans have the right
to life, liberty and property (connection to
Declaration of Independence, 1776)
Rights ethics holds that people have the
fundamental rights that other people have
the duty to respect.
In duty ethics people have duties, an
important one of which is to protect the
rights of others
John Locke (1632-1704)
Virtue Ethics :
Virtue ethics focuses on the person that we would like to become. In
virtue ethics, actions are considered right if they support good character
traits.
The words responsibility, honesty, competence, loyalty are of paramouth
importance for virtue ethics.
The opposite of virtue is vice (irresponsibility, dishonesty, disloyalty..)
In many ways this theory is a reminder of personal ethics rather than
professional ethics. However personal morality should not be separated
from business morality. If a behavior is virtuous in a person’s personal life
it is also virtuous in his/her business life.
Which theory to use?
The good news is that we do not have to choose from among these
different theories to analyze a moral problem. Rather we use each theory
to see the matter from different point of views.
When each visited theory gives the same answer there is no problem:
Case: A chemical plant discharges hazardous material into the
groundwater. The city takes its water from wells. This leads to significant
health problems.
* The pollution is harmful to human beings living in that city. They have the right to drink
potable water (Rights ethics).
* Economic benefits of the discharge plant is outweighed by the health insurance + safe
water supply system (Utilitarian approach)
* Discharging wastes into underground is irresponsible and harmful (Virtue ethics)
When each visited theory gives different answers:
Case:WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant)
* Transporting nuclear waste products is not a good idea for people living along the road
(Rights ethics).
* WIPP is economically beneficial (Utilitarian approach)
* Governments have the duty of protecting the health of their citizens (Duty ethics)
Rights and duty ethics > Utilitarianism
For example the death of even one person has significant and negative consequences even
though the outcome of that action is very beneficial to the society.
A thorough analysis is necessary to reach a sound conclusion (Further analysis techniques will
be given in Chapter 4)
THE DISASTER AT BHOPAL
On the night of December 2, 1984, a leak developed in a storage tank at a
Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India.
The tank contained 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC), a highly toxic chemical
used in the manufacture of pesticides. The toxic gas cloud covered the
surrounding slums of Bhopal killing 2.000 people immediately and injuring
200.000 or more.
The leak is attributed to the accidental pouring of water (~1 ton) into the tank.
Water mixed with MIC gave rise to an exothermic reaction thus increasing the
tempereture of the liquid in the tank to ~190˚C. The mixture evaporated and
caused high pressure within the tank. When the pressure became high enough, a
pressure relief valve popped open and the gas leaked into the atmosphere.
Factors that led to the accident:
1) Curtailment of plant maintenance as part of a cost-cutting effort.
Refrigeration unit had not been working for the last 5 months before the accident.
2) The temperature alarm was improperly set.
3) The flare tower designed to burn MIC vapor before it reaches atmosphere was not functioning
properly.
Whose fault?
Plant designers have foreseen possible problems and have taken precautions by
adding safety systems such as flare tower, temperature alarm and refrigeration
unit. These systems if functioned properly might have mitigated the problem.
The management seems negligent. It is sometimes necessary that some safety
systems are taken off for a certain time for maintenance reasons. However it is
acceptable to take them off altogether at the same time.
Union Carbide did not prepare a plan for notifying and evacuating the surrounding
population in the event of an accident. Such plans are standard in the USA and
required by the local ordinance. Union Carbide had a sister plant in Institute, West
Virginia where similar problems occured with no fatality. Union Carbide issued
emergency plans for its West Virginia plant 3 months before the accident in
Bhopal. These warnings and plans were not transmitted to India.
Finally the government of India had its share of the blame. Third world countries
have a tendency to view safety measures and environmental regulations as too
expensive. Western countries’ enforcings upon this issue are seen “imposing” and
rejected by local administrations.
The bulk of the blame goes to Union Carbide (U.C.) for not adequately training and
supervising its Indian employees . The law suits totaling over 250 billion USD were
filed on behalf of the victims of the accident. U.C. compensated the families in a
timely fashion. U. C. Also helped set up job training and relocation programs for
the victims.
Over 10.000 people suffered permenant damage after the accident.