Ethics Essay

Riley Thoma
Computer Engineering 394
4/29/2019

What is the purpose of having or following a “Code of Ethics”? I believe the main
reasons to have a code of ethics is to promote clarity and unity in the professional world. It
promotes clarity by neatly listing out the specific moral “rules and regulations” in an easy to
read, readily available format. This allows everyone easy access to the same set of standards, and
helps not just individuals follow the code, but groups of people in keeping each other
accountable to it as well. Having a code of ethics promotes unity as well, because without a code
of ethics every individual would have their own set of morals they would apply to their
occupation. However, with this code of ethics in place it allows people to be unified in how they
solve problems, deal with morally difficult situations, and generally act in their professional
lives.
Before this semester I had never heard of a formal code of ethics, like the IEEE Code of
Ethics, but I can see the importance of having one now. In the past when I have been faced with
an ethical situation, I have done my best to stay true to the values and morals I was raised with. I
cannot say I have been a part of any major ethical situations in a workplace or other, however,
when I encounter smaller day to day ethical choices, I do my best to stay true to what I believe is
right. To make these types of decisions, I pull from my past experiences, from those people’s
actions and advice who I have looked up to as mentors in my life, from my religion, and from
my general knowledge of the subject or situation that I have learned throughout my life. When I
make ethical decisions, I try my best to be thinking of how I will be affecting others with my
actions, and what repercussions will result from the actions I take. I think that one of the things I
struggle with most, and other people as well, when it comes to making ethical decisions is
making an ethically correct decision that goes against what my superior, or what a person older
than me is wanting to do. It can be so easy to follow along with this person’s bad choice; what is
truly difficult, and what I continue to work on, is having the courage to stand up, and oppose
these people above me when I know they are wrong.
To expand our views on our own ethics, and discuss some of these types of issues that
our world has faced and is facing right now we had the chance to form a group of about seven
students and one professor to have a discussion. Our group was paired with Professor Dalal. The
main purpose of this group was to discuss a few of the ethical engineering issues we were given
in handout form, however, we spent almost all the class listening to Prof. Dalal lecture us on
each of these issues himself. We did not get to do much discussion, but the topics covered by
Dalal included the Ford Pinto defective cars, the Volkswagen emission cheating software, and
the Boeing 737 MAX airplane crashes. The main ethical issues covered were dealing with the
actions taken to either hide or cover up problems, the lack of knowledge/actions taken by the
“higher ups” in these companies, the conflict of interest, rushing to get a product on the market,
and finally the flat out lying.
These issues came from the three topics above, but the one that was talked about the most
was the Boeing 737 issues and crashes. The most notable one to me was the ethical issues of
rushing to get the new Boeing planes through FFA certification. Boeing rushed this process as it
had fallen behind Airbus in the aerospace world. The FAA ended up pushing some of the safety
assessments back onto Boeing to get them done faster. This act of rushing to produce a product
that directly affects so many lives is already an ethical issue, however, the fact that Boeing was
doing some of its own certification is a major conflict of interest and as such a major ethical
issue. Boeing, and in some ways the FAA, were not following several of the “rules” from the
IEEE Code of Ethics in this part of the issue alone. Namely, they did not hold the safety of their
passengers to be the most important, and they did not avoid conflicts of interest (IEEE Code of
Ethics). This plane’s production should have never been rushed to begin with, but allowing the
plane to be in some ways certified by the very company that was trying to rush it through
production was even more of an ethical issue, as those people who worked for Boeing had a very
large motivation to pass the plane through its safety tests even when it was not safe. Following
the Code of Ethics, the FAA should not have allowed for a rushed certification, and if they did,
they should not have allowed it to be been done by that same company’s affiliates. Also,
following the code, Boeing should have been more conscious of the safety risks it was imposing
on this project by having it rushed through production and certification. Human lives were at risk
and that should have been their focus, not trying to catch up to the competition.
We have an obligation to think about the lives that our projects and products will affect.
This can range from something as large as a plane carrying hundreds of people to just one person
using a technology we create. Our obligation is to those people, making sure that we can stick to
a code of ethics like IEEE’s, and say with one hundred percent certainty that our products will
positively affect those people, and not harm them in any way. These are my ethical
considerations when it comes to developing products that will impact human lives. Our group,
sadly, did not get a chance to discuss these types of considerations, but it was clear that Prof.
Dalal cared deeply about making sure things were getting done the right way. He talked about
how, as engineers, it is our duty to make sure that we check every detail, test every possible
outcome, and design as if lives depend on it because in many cases they do. These view points
match my own quite closely, as I strive to be a very detail-oriented person.
Based on this break down of the ethical issues Dalal explained to us about the Boeing 737
issues there are three virtues, from the “Virtues of Ethics”, that I feel relate most closely to this
case. These three are integrity, fidelity, and honesty. Integrity was lacking on Boeing’s part in
this case because they had full knowledge of the safety risks they were creating and working
around to certify and put this airplane in the air. Boeing had fidelity but only for itself and its
benefactors. They forgot to have fidelity for those that mattered most, those passengers who
would be riding their aircrafts. Honesty was also lacking, Boeing failed to have integrity in doing
the right thing they, and they also failed to be honest about the mistakes they made after the first
crash happened. The other three virtues are in ways also relevant to this case as charity ties in
closely with having fidelity and kindness to those costumers. Boeing lacked responsibility and
trustworthiness in their actions, and finally they had no self-discipline as they only sought that
which could help them profit instead of restraining themselves to work longer and create a
product that was safe. So, in many various ways Boeing failed to uphold these ethical virtues
derived from the code of ethics they also failed to follow. I believe these virtues do a fairly good
job at covering a broad spectrum of qualities that encompass ethics and I wouldn’t include
another virtue. Boeing truly was disregarding their customers and overstepping their ethical
objectives, in ways large and small they also failed to follow the code of ethics and these virtues
of ethics.

Citations:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.. (2019). IEEE Code of Ethics. Retrieved
from https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html