ETHICS IN ENGINEERING

Statement of Ethical Principles

Statement of Ethical Principles

Thesis Statement

Four fundamental principles that should guide an engineer in achieving high professional standards and their examples.

Introduction

Engineers play a significant part in the development, prosperity and safety of people around the globe. The primary role of engineers is to identify/sense and respond to a need by constructing or creating a solution with certain specific guidelines. While it is the responsibility of engineers to develop such structures, it is also their responsibility that their creation serves the function in a proper manner, take all safety precautions while performing professional duty and give the safety directions to the users after handing it over.

Discussion

These structures, however, do not stay safe forever. No matter how safe a construction or a creation is, it reveals its failure after sometime. Eventually these failures lead to dire consequences some time. Engineers struggle all the time to avoid failures and make their solution safer and more efficient.

In UK, the seriousness of ethical issues, which arise in professional lives of engineers, has been recognized recently. However, in USA this has been recognized for some time. Their universities offer substantial guidance and support to their professionals. The Royal Academy of Engineering, in 2005, initiated the process and brought its publishing in the form of “Statement of Ethical Principles”, which outlines the specific ways in which engineers across UK are committed to upholding certain ethical values.

During the same time, UK Engineering Council amended its standards for chartered and incorporated engineers, in order to increase awareness of ethical issues. It appears that this has resulted in having a profound effect, as many universities have incorporated ethical perspective in their studies.

The statement of Ethical Principles sets standards for professional Engineers (Statement of Ethical Principles. 2005), presents four principles that guide engineers in their professional duties. It includes Accuracy and Rigour, Honesty and Integrity, Respect for life, Law and the Public Good, and Responsible Leadership.

Accuracy and Rigour means, Engineers have the responsibility to acquire and sustain the information relevant to their practices; they should also keep their knowledge up to date. It is also the responsibility to always act with care, as their profession requires a strong commitment. Since the technical knowledge, an Engineer can understand is not easy for the others, therefore, it is the duty of engineer to not knowingly mislead others, as it can have dire consequences and is therefore unethical.

Example

The courtroom says in this regard that there should not be any doubt regarding that, it is the responsibility of the Engineer in charge of construction to warn those on site; in case of failure to do so, the engineer will be liable (Clay v Crump, 1964, n.d.).

Honesty and Integrity means; engineers should act with high standards of professional ethics. They should not accept any bribery or questionable payment from anyone. They should act in the best interest of employer, unless it is not in conflict with rights of the other ...