Social & Legal Issues

Ethics for Engineers

Professional Ethics

Social & Legal Issues

Scientific ethics that mankind

should all abide
Scientists and engineers should not only have the
interest and passion for creation, but also shoulder the
social responsibility.
In S&T innovation,, we should respect
p life ((including
g
that of mankind and other life).
In S&T innovation, we should respect the human
rights fairly (including that among not just the
contemporaries but also the different generations).

Social & Legal Issues

S i tifi Ethi
Scientific
Ethics
In S&T innovation, we should respect dignity of
human (including those of different ethnic groups,
genders, ages and with different beliefs).
p nature,
In S&T innovation, we should respect
protect eco
eco--systems and environment, and realize
harmonious coexistence and sustainable evolution
between man and nature.

Social & Legal Issues

Commonality
lit between
b t
ancient
i t oriental
i t l philosophy
hil
h
and modern scientific ethics
2500 years ago, the Chinese philosopher
Confucius (551 BC 479 BC) put
forward the following ethical norms:
treasure life
treat people equally
respect each other
encourage creation
be faithful and trustable

Social & Legal Issues

What is thinking
thinking like an engineer
engineer??

to use ones technical knowledge of things

Engineers serve all members of the community in
enhancing their welfare, health and safety by a creative
process utilizing the engineers knowledge expertise and
experience

Social & Legal Issues

Institution of Engineers India - Royal Charters 1997

The Code of Ethics is based on broad principles of truth,

honesty, justice trustworthiness, respect an safeguard of
human life and welfare,
welfare competence and accountability
which constitute the moral values every member must
recognize uphold and abide by.

Social & Legal Issues

Why do we have codes of ethics?

a convention between professionals
a guide to what engineers may reasonably expect of one
another
th
a guide to what engineers may expect other members of
the profession to help each other do

Social & Legal Issues

Why obey ones code?

P
Protects
t t professionals
f i
l from
f
certain
t i pressures
Such as cutting corners
By making it more likely that good conduct will not be
punished
Protects professionals from certain consequences of
competition
Legitimizes the profession

Social & Legal Issues

N ti
National
l Society
S i t off Professional
P f i
l Engineers
E i
(NSPE) Code of Ethics
Fundamental Canons
Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties,
shall:
1. Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the
public.
2 P
2.
Perform
f
services
i
only
l in
i areas off their
th i competence.
t
3. Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful
manner.
4. Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or
trustees.

Social & Legal Issues

National Society of Professional Engineers

(NSPE) Code of Ethics

55. Avoid deceptive acts.

acts
6. Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically,
and lawfully so as to enhance the honor
honor, reputation,
reputation and
usefulness of the profession

Social & Legal Issues

ABET Code of Ethics of Engineers

Accreditation Board for Engineering and
Technology
The Fundamental Canons
1. Engineers shall hold paramount the safety
1
safety,
health, and welfare of the public in the performance
of their professional duties.
2. Engineers shall perform services only in the
areas of their competence.
3. Engineers shall issue public statements only in
an objective and truthful manner.
4 Engineers shall act in professional matters for
4.
each employer or client as faithful agents or
trustees,, and shall avoid conflicts of interest.

Social & Legal Issues

ABET Code
C d off Ethics
Ethi off E
Engineers
i
55. E
Engineers
i
shall
h ll build
b ild their
th i professional
f i
l reputation
t ti on
the merit of their services and shall not compete unfairly
with others.
6. Engineers shall act in such a manner as to uphold and
enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the profession.
7. Engineers shall continue their professional development
throughout their careers and shall provide opportunities
for the professional development of those engineers under
their supervision

Social & Legal Issues

Professional Codes of Ethics

National Society of Professional Engineers
(NSPE)
Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
(IEEE)
A
American
i
S
Society
i
off M
Mechanical
h i l Engineers
E i
(ASME)

Social & Legal Issues

It has four sections

Section 1:
Fundamental ethical
considerations

2: and
Specific
p Professional Conduct
ACM CodeSection
of Ethics
ethical considerations
Section 3: For people
in leadership roles
Section 4: Principles
involving compliance
with the code

Social & Legal Issues

ACM:((Association of Computing Machinery)

ACM
Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
Contribute to society and human well being (1.1)
Obligation to protect fundamental human rights and to
respect the diversity of all cultures.
Minimize negative consequences of computing systems
Must attempt to ensure that the products of their efforts will
b usedd in
be
i socially
i ll responsible
ibl ways
avoid harmful effects to health and welfare.
avoid potential damage to the local or global environment

Social & Legal Issues

. Avoid harm to others (1.2).

Harm means injury or negative consequences
Example: loss of information, property,
property/environmental damage, etc. Strive to include features
which discourage abuse in the investment world.
world
Design systems so that time & effort is not wasted on overhead
items such as the time it takes to ppurge
g viruses.
Sometimes well intended actions may lead to harmful results.

Social & Legal Issues

Be honest and trustworthy (1.3)

Do not make deceptive or false claims about the system

Full
F ll discloser
di l
limitation
li it ti and
d problems
bl
with
ith the
th system!
t !
Sometimes following this one could get you not promoted
or even fired but you must be able to live with yourself.
yourself

Social & Legal Issues

Ethics in Biotechnology

Social & Legal Issues

Why Ethics in Biotechnology

New technology
Plurality of moral convictions
Divergent economic, political, and social objectives
Growing sensitivity of the public
Doubts of the public about internal control mechanism of
scientific institutions and the scientific community to
adequately consider moral implications of research and its
consequences
Complexity of ethical issues involved

Bioethics

Social & Legal Issues

Bioethics: A discipline dealing with the

ethical implications of biological research
and applications

Social & Legal Issues

What is a principleprinciple-based approach to bioethics?

Respect for person

Beneficence
J ti
Justice
Confidentiality

Social & Legal Issues

T
Two
ki
kinds
d off ethical
thi l arguments
t GMOs
GMO
1. Non-scientific base
GMOs are wrong, no matter how great the benefits
may be.
b
2 Scientific
2.
S i tifi base
b
G O are wrong because
GMOs
b
risks
k outweigh
h benefits.
b
f

Social & Legal Issues

GMOs: Ethical Considerations

The issue is whether GMOs/GM foods morally/ethically
acceptable.
p

If they are ethically acceptable, then there is nothing

wrong about producing/using/consuming them.

If they are not acceptable, people should stop producing

them.
them

Social & Legal Issues

GMO Ethi
GMOs:
Ethicall Considerations
C
id
ti
Why the deeper ethical-philosophical
ethical philosophical reasons underlying the
GMO debates are so important.

If we are to resolve ethical (as opposed to scientific)

controversies associated with GMOs/GM foods, a key
step is to acknowledge differences in basic values, and
then debate the matter in terms of these deeper
commitments and concerns.

Social & Legal Issues

Components of Acceptability
Judgments about ethical acceptability depend on
answering several preliminary questions:
1. What GMOs are we talking about? What Product?
Different products have different ethical
dimensions
dimensions
BT corn
Golden Rice

Social & Legal Issues

C
Components
t off A
Acceptability
t bilit (contd)
2. Bear on ethical acceptability is the context in
which the analysis or argument is set.

need to be paid to all of relevant context in which a

judgment about the ethical acceptability of GMOs can
(or should) be made.

Social & Legal Issues

Further development of life sciences

and biotechnology will bring about
new revolutionary changes to
agriculture
and
healthcare
healthcare..
Meanwhile, the advancement and
extensive
t i
application
li ti
off industrial
i d t i l
and
ecoeco-environmental
biotechnology will lead to the advent
of BioBio-economy era .

Social & Legal Issues

H
However,
ethical
thi l problems
bl
such
h as individual
i di id l life
lif code
d
disclosure, difficulty in definition of individual
individuals social
attribution,
tt ib ti
etc
t will
ill also
l
rise
rise.
i . Other
Oth
problems
bl
i l d
include
factitious impact on ecological balance and safety, new
threat to human genetic and development health,
health etc
etc..

Social & Legal Issues

Pest Resistance: Bt Corn

Social & Legal Issues

Herbicide Tolerance

Roundup Ready

Social & Legal Issues

Enhanced Nutrition

G ld rice
Golden
i

Social & Legal Issues

Commercial Value

Fast-growing salmon

Social & Legal Issues

Ethical Arguments About Biotechnology

Intrinsic: Biotechnology is good/bad in itself

Extrinsic: Biotechnology is good/bad because of:

its consequences
the motivations behind:
advocacy of biotech or
opposition to biotech

Social & Legal Issues

Intrinsic Arguments Against Biotechnology

Premise: Genetic engineering is unnatural.

Conclusion: Therefore, genetic engineering is intrinsically
wrong.
Is this a good argument?

Social & Legal Issues

Intrinsic Arguments Against Biotechnology

Genetic engineering requires that we take a

reductionist
d i i view
i off life
lif that
h sees only
l genes, not
individuals, as important.
From the reductionist
red ctionist perspective,
perspecti e life is merely
merel
the aggregate representation of the chemicals that
give rise to it and therefore they see no ethical
problem whatsoever in transferringeven a
hundred genes from one species into the heredity
blueprint of another species.
Jeremy Rifkin

Social & Legal Issues

Extrinsic Arguments About Biotechnology

Biotechnology
gy is ggood/bad because of its
consequences.
Three ways to evaluate consequences:
Do no harm (avoid bad consequences).
a
e good co
consequences
seque ces and
a d minimizee bad ones
o es for
o
Maximize
all affected.
Justice: Fair distribution of good and bad consequences
among all affected.

Social & Legal Issues

Extrinsic Arguments
g
About Biotechnology
gy

Biotechnology is good/bad because of the motivations of its

proponents/opponents.

Social & Legal Issues

Extrinsic Arguments:
g
Motivations

Friends of the Earth: Golden rice may never help poor

g
European
p
farmers,, but it could ggive the beleaguered
biotech industry a new grasp on life.
Florence Wambugu: These critics [of biotech], who have
never experienced hunger and death on the scale we sadly
witness in Africa,
Africa are content to keep Africans dependent
on food aid from industrialized nations while mass
starvation occurs.

Social & Legal Issues

Extrinsic Arguments About Biotechnology

Environmental consequences
Human health consequences
Who benefits?
Who decides?

Social & Legal Issues

Ethics of Virtue/Tradition and Food/Agricultural

Biotech
Agrarianism:
- views agriculture as more than a business or economic sector
in society: agriculture is a way of life

- sees the traditional family farm as a place where real

human values and virtues can be practiced.
p

- GMOs are designed, intended, for business-like efficient

production; are not designed to enhance the quality of life for
f
farm
ffamilies
ili or their
h i communities;
i i favor
f
larger
l
farms,
f
make
k
traditional agriculture less competitive; may make foodstuffs
ccheaper,
e pe , forcing
o c g traditional
d o farmers
e s out
ou of
o business.
bus ess.

Social & Legal Issues

Ethics of Virtue/Tradition and Food/Agricultural

g
Biotech

Nature-ism:
playing
playing God
God
ecosystem -- upsetting of the operation of ecosystems. Not
to cause irreparable
p
damage.
g
for Nature-ists, once we recognize the delicate balancing
processes that constitute ecosystems or Nature, we must see
that human beings have no right to manipulate species or
processes in this way.

Social & Legal Issues

The Precautionaryy Principle

p

When an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or

human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if
some cause and effect relationships are not fully established
scientifically.

Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary

Principle, Jan. 1998
Lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for
postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental
degradation.

Rio Declaration 1992

Social & Legal Issues

Ethics and Agricultural Biotechnology

1. Consequentiality
q
y Perception
p
on Agricultural
g
Biotech
subscribe to the view that actions, policies, practices
and technologies ought
o ght to promote
p omote peoples needs and
preferences.
the question is whether agriculture does this, and the
answer is usually that it does.
does

Social & Legal Issues

Ethics and Agricultural

g
Biotechnology
gy
2. Autonomy/Consent and Food/Agricultural
Biotech
begins with the axiom that self-determination
self determination implies that
people have inviolable rights, which establishes the ethical
demand that people be given a choice concerning how they
want to act and be treated
treated.
people have the ethical right to choose what they
consume/purchase and to avoid or reject it if they so
d i
desire.

Social & Legal Issues

Ethi and
Ethics
d Agricultural
A i lt
l Biotechnology
Bi t h l
3. Ethics of Virtue/Tradition and
Food/Agricultural Biotech
virtue/tradition ethics defines ethical acceptability in terms
of consistency with some deeply
deeply-held
held values and virtues,
virtues
whether they relate to farming as a way of life, to life in
accord with Nature, or to following Gods plan and will.
Not
N t allll virtue/tradition
i t /t diti ethical
thi l perspectives
ti
will
ill necessarily
il
reject GMOs or biotechnology overall.

Social & Legal Issues

The Consequentiality Perspective on Agricultural

Biotech
C
Consequentialists
i li subscribe
b ib to the
h view
i that
h actions,
i
policies,
li i
practices and technologies ought to promote peoples needs
p
and preferences.
Consequentialist goals: (QQP)
(1) Quantity
Quantity: Produce enough food to feed a growing

and non-rural population.

(2) Quality: Produce food that is safe and nutritionally
adequate.
(3)
( ) Price: Ensure
E
that
th t food
f d is
i generally
ll affordable
ff d bl for
f
consumers while also ensuring that farmers receive profits
from their work sufficient to keepp them in business.

Social & Legal Issues

The Consequentiality Perspective on Agricultural

Biotech

In consquentialist terms
terms.
greatest good for the greatest number

Concerns that some things that people want other than QQP.
GMOs may endanger these other goods. For example,
environmental
i
l protections,
i
etc.

Issues for long-term consequences of GMOs:

- Will our childrens health be placed at risk by the use of GM
technology?
- What about future peoples wants and preferences? Are
they being placed at risk?

Social & Legal Issues

Autonomy/Consent and Food/Agricultural Biotech

The autonomy/consent
Th
t
/
t paradigm
di
begins
b i with
ith the
th axiom
i
that
th t selflf
determination implies that people have inviolable rights.

Autonomy/consent ethicists and Consequentialists concern

about:

Is our food safe?

Transparency of the food system.

- farm pproduction techniques

q

- transportation and processing systems

- ppackaging
g g and marketingg activities

Social & Legal Issues

A t
Autonomy/Consent
/C
t and
dF
Food/Agricultural
d/A i lt l Bi
Biotech
t h
P
People
l have
h
a right
i h to purchase
h
items
i
that
h will
ill not
unknowingly place them at risk and thus may demand the
g supporters
pp
of
choice to avoid these pproducts. The strongest
some form of labeling of GM foods.
Many people believe that the autonomy/consent issues that are
raised are not so much a matter of biotechnology as a matter of
power and control: consumers and farmers want greater
control over the choices available to them in their respective
arenas.
Farmers choices.

Social & Legal Issues

Autonomy/Consent and Food/Agricultural Biotech

People have the ethical right to:

- choose what they are consuming

- avoid or reject it if they so desire

Social & Legal Issues

R
Regulation
l ti
(Risk
(Ri k Management)
M
t)

demand scientific and political

vigilance

support:
t regulatory
l t
oversight
i ht on
case-by-case basis

Do not support: a ban on all GMOs

or GM crops

Social & Legal Issues

Communication

increase
as pub
public understanding
u d s a d g of
o the science
s
behind GMOs debate

develop tools for public communication and

promoting the public understanding of this and
related issues

not just one-way communication but should

encourage dialogue between all participants

Social & Legal Issues

C
Communication
i ti

(contd)

two way flow of understanding

two-way
between scientists and the
public is also required

make sure all stakeholder voice

are heard

Social & Legal Issues

Key Challenges of Agricultural Biotechnology

Can we capture the potential benefits of agricultural
biotechnology in a fair and equitable way for todays and
future generations?
Can we balance the interests of human society and the
environment
i
using
i biotechnology?
bi
h l ?
Can biotechnology contribute to sustainable agricultural
systems?
t
?
How should we frame the biotechnology issue?