VARIETIES or APPROACHES OF MORAL ISSUES

MICRO-ETHICS emphasizes typically everyday problems that can take on significant proportions in an engineer’s life or entire engineering office.

MACRO-ETHICS addresses societal problems that  are  often shunted aside and are  not addressed until they unexpectedly resurface on a regional or national scale.

MORAL PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING

(SOME EXAMPLES)

1.1. An inspector discovered faulty construction equipment and applied a violation tag, preventing its use. The supervisor, a  construction manager viewed the case as  a  minor abrasion of the safety regulations and ordered the removal of the tag to speed up the project. When the inspector objected to this, he was threatened with disciplinary action.

1.2. An electric utility company applied for a permit to operate a nuclear power plant. The licensing agency was interested in knowing what emergency measures had been established for humans safety in case of reactor malfunctioning. The utility engineers described the alarm system and arrangements with local hospitals for treatment. They did not emphasize that this measures applied to plant personnel  only and that they had no plans for the surrounding population. When enquired about their omission, they said it was not their responsibility.

1.3. A chemical plant dumped wastes in a landfill. Hazardous substances found their way into the underground water table. The plant’s engineers were aware of the situation but did not

Change the method of disposal because their competitors did it the same cheap way, and no law explicitly forbade the practice.

1.4. Electronics Company ABC geared up for production of its own version of a popular new item. The product was not yet  ready for sale, but  even so, pictures and impressive specifications appeared in advertisements.  Prospective customers were led to believe that it was available off the shelf and were drawn away from competing lines.