Adrian Jahaziel Villalobos

Ethics and Professionalism

Engineering ethics plays an important role in daily life. Those engaged in engineering are
endorsed with rights and responsibilities. They have personal commitments about
determining what is more desirable. Engineers participate in the creation and regulation
of decisions, policies, and values, and in doing so, they affect other people or entities.
For example, design engineers are expected to create products that are safe and useful. If
an engineer fails to do this, consumers can be harmed or unsatisfied.
Engineering Ethics involves the processing, supporting, and suggesting concepts of right
and wrong behavior. It is important because beyond that call of serious reflection
throughout our career, its study increases our ability to deal effectively with moral
complexity. We study ethics because we want to increase our moral autonomy; we want
to be able to get the habit and skill to be able to think rationally in situations that have its
basis on moral concerns. We can do this by trying to improve our moral awareness,
reasoning, imagination, tolerance and integrity, among other important things.
One characteristic of being professional is responsibility. This does not only mean that an
engineer, corporation, or group of people is expected to do their work, but also combines
obligations, ideas of character, accountability, praiseworthiness, and blameworthiness.
An engineer should always think beyond what he is asked, and meditate on what he is
doing, and on all of the consequences that any decision can bring. If he observes an ethic
issue, he must think critically in order to find the most convenient solution. In the study
case of LeMessurier and the Citicorp Tower, we can see how an engineer foresees a
possibility of a disaster. He observes that there is a possibility that a strong wind can tear
down a skyscraper he constructed. Although he could have remained in silence and admit
no responsibility, he made sure everyone was aware of the risk, and $12.5 million were
wasted in the repair of the building. LeMessurier not only saved many lives, but kept his
integrity in exchange.
Laws play an enormously important role in engineering, but sometimes they overshadow
and even threaten morally responsible conducts. Thus, attorneys often advise individuals
not to admit responsibility. If a lawyer had advised LeMessurier to remain silence,
millions of dollars could have been saved, and in case the catastrophe happened,
LeMessurier could have avoided all responsibilities by blaming the other engineers or the
government which approved the joints to be bolted. But LeMessurier left his personal
interests, and did the right thing by making sure the building was safe and no lives were
lost. In this case, it would be unethical if an attorney had advised not to admit
responsibility. This not always has to be that way, sometimes there are occasions where
this is a good advice. Consider the case of a company that is selling milk with rBGH (a
synthetic hormone behaving as a cancer accelerator in adults). An attorney may suggest
the company not to take responsibility for the death of a woman who died with high
levels of rBGH. Although the company knows is responsible for this death, it is better to
take no responsibility because then nobody will buy the milk. By taking no responsibility
on this event, the company may be able to keep selling their products, keep employing
hundreds of people (which keeps the economy stable), and will be able to remove the
rBGH from their milk to avoid problems.