Ethics: a Mission for the Engineering Federations

Consideration is given to the dilemmas faced by engineers, if and when conflicts arise between the individual’s sense of social responsibility and his specific technical interests. A specialized topic included with these is the protection required for whistle-blowers. In general, it is asserted that creating a climate in which ethical behaviour may flourish should be considered as one of the most sophisticated, but also one of the most rewarding, tasks facing the engineering federations. Recommended actions on behalf of IFAC and other engineering federations are outlined. Finally a warning is given against extremist attempts to exploit ethical issues in engineering. Copyright @ 2002 IFAC 1. THE SPECIFIC NATURE OF ENGINEERING-RELATED ETHICAL ISSUES Engineers are affected by ethical problems in an unusual way. Most other professions operate within a framework of long-standing laws and regulations, or are free to follow the ethical norms that are traditionally part of their specialty. From the ethical point of view, the best regulated profession is medicine. It has a very long tradition of ethical practice and the Hippocratic oath itself is still binding on practitioners, although advances in medical science and technology continuously give rise to ethical dilemmas in novel form (Aristotle et al.). Lawyers are also part of a tradition rooted in antiquity, namely the principles of Roman law subsequently consolidated into Western European culture. The ethics of pedagogy, on the other hand, have changed greatly over the years, and not only the content but also the objectives of education are quite different from what they once were. The earlier aim of education was to prepare pupils as appropriate to their specific roles in society, either as ruler or ruled in a given hierarchy, while preserving the traditional knowledge related to this clearly defined role. Today education is designed to encourage a democratic, participatory citizenship, and to stimulate innovative creativity. Students’ and children’s rights have become constituent parts of education and consequently the ethical environment of pedagogy has changed radically. Nevertheless, ethical rules and procedures are mostly well defined in diverse cultures and national education systems. Ethics in the economic sphere are perhaps the most difficult to define, because of their frequently problematic relationship with economic success. For this reason, ethics for professionals working in the economy are not particularly well defined and more reliance is placed on legal regulation. Pragmatism and custom have helped to make this a viable way of settling differences, and business partners who find themselves in conflict usually arrive at a compromise brokered by the law. Ethics in the engineering field are quite different from all the above-mentioned. This is because they are mostly oriented to rather short-term relationships, and in the majority of cases they involve bilateral personal negotiation. That means that they have a direct or short-term feedback based on direct human contacts, either as between groups of people, or as between groups representing different functions. Engineering ethics are indeed global and the creative engineer cannot hope to foresee all the circumstances in which his invention might be put to use. The product, transcending all national borders and penetrating many other civilizations, will inevitably undergo various transmutations of application. Under “product” we understand, in this context, any kind of device, software or medium. 2. TYPES OF ETHICAL CONFLICT IN ENGINEERING From the point of view of this discussion, we can define two classes of conflict that involve ethical considerations. The first is conflict among persons of Copyright © 2002 IFAC 15th Triennial World Congress, Barcelona, Spain