Major Ethics Case Studies
Focus on the major
technological disasters and
catastrophes in engineering
Module 4 in the “Teaching Engineering Ethics” Series
Outline of Material
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Major Ethical Impact = Macro-ethics
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Ethics as a “Design Problem”
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Micro-ethics (the individual and the situation)
Macro-ethics (systemic issues)
Engineer as a Moral Agent
Analogies: Design and Ethics Decisions
Case: The Space Shuttle Challenger
Macro-Ethical Issues
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Safety, Loss of Life, Catastrophic Failures
Typically Newsworthy Items
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The Space Shuttle Challenger*
Bhopal—Union Carbide*
The Ford Pinto
Firestone and Ford Explorer tires
Three Mile Island / Chernobyl Nuclear Reactors
Kansas City Hyatt Suspended Walkway
Boston Molasses Tank Accident*
Indicative of systemic problems (beyond simple
engineering and day-to-day ethics)
Ethics as a Design Problem
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The engineer as a moral agent
Moral problems
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Design Process
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…are practical problems (they demand a response)
…are not multiple-choice problems
Recognize and Evaluate the Problem
Devise solutions
Evaluate solutions
Choose from the alternatives
The “devise solutions” phase is typically
shortchanged in the ethics judgment process or
artificially constrained to a limited set of
alternatives
Ethics as a Design Problem
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How ethics “sound bites” oversimplify the ethical
reasoning process:
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“Do the right thing”
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“Should [the agent] do X or Y”
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Portrays the problem as having an exclusive solution set
Portrays the problem as a binary multiple-choice solution set
with no latitude for creating alternatives
Exploits a limited “win-lose” or “lose-win” paradigm
“There are no right or wrong answers”
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Indicative of a “moral relativism” philosophy or simply that
there is no uniquely correct solution
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In reality, there can be solutions that are better than others and
which can be prioritized
Also, solutions can each comprise a unique and special
advantage
Ethics as a Design Problem
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What solutions sets exist for a given set of
specifications or ethical constraints?
Solution Set Population
Wrong Solutions
Probability
Always
No Solution
Possible
One Single Exclusive and Acceptable Solution
Unlikely
Multiple Solutions: All Equally Acceptable
Possible
Multiple Solutions: Orthogonal Acceptability
Very Likely
Ethics as a Design Problem
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Lessons from design problems:
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Consider the Uncertainties in the Situation
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Ambiguities often underemphasized in professional ethics
Decisions to be made:
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Whether to gather additional evidence
How to address the issues with others
How to elicit support for the moral concern
Determining possible solutions is separate from
defining the problem and may require more
information
Time Pressure is real and demands searching for
multiple alternative solutions in parallel
The ethical situation may be dynamically changing;
decisions should not be made on an old “snapshot” of
the situation