Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Ethics in Engineering

When I think of engineering I think of equations, physics, calculus, processes, methodologies, rules and regulations. The one thing that I would not think of however is ethics or more specifically engineering ethics and the manner of designing ethical products and services. This principle of designing with morals and the health, safety and good of the general population is difficult to ignore.

Ethics, especially those applied in the engineering field, can make or break a product or service (no pun intended). Ethics provides responsibility to the designer and allows the public to be sure that each and every product or service they are using is, without question or doubt, tested and proven to be safe. It allows security as a consumer to use and purchase products without questioning safety or health.

To assure or guarantee that engineers are ethical and design products and services ethically, there are a set of engineering ethics principles or guidelines  These guidelines assure that each engineer considers that people, the environment,  competition and other factors are considered to the fullest to provide ethical products and services to society.

In my opinion these guidelines and principles are a much needed check or catch to all the products and services being designed today. If the product or service being considered is going to affect society or the environment every engineer needs to make ethical decisions. We are only given one life and one earth to live so why not ethically and knowledgeably make decisions that will help sustain the environment we live?

-SW

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