Report on Engineering Ethics and Professional Practice

This report delves into the critical domain of engineering ethics, emphasizing its significance in the engineering profession and its impact on society. It defines engineering ethics as the practical morals and ethical values related to the profession, outlining the responsibilities of engineers toward society, clients, and their occupation. The report explores the meaning and importance of ethics, referencing the Australian engineering ethics code, and highlights the need for ethical guidelines to maintain public trust and professional integrity. It presents various ethical issues, including teaching ethics to young engineers and the complexity of applying ethical codes. Furthermore, the report discusses real-world cases like the Bhopal Disaster, Fukushima Reactor Meltdown, and Hurricane Katrina, illustrating the consequences of unethical practices. It offers potential solutions, such as providing comprehensive ethics education and enforcing strict regulations. In conclusion, the report underscores the necessity of engineering ethics for safeguarding public health, environmental preservation, and fostering a responsible engineering community.

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Ethics and Professional Practice

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Introduction
Engineering ethics is the ground of practical morals and structure of ethical values that relate
to the profession. The field examines and defines the responsibilities of an engineer towards
society, their clients, and towards their occupation. The engineering ethics are closely
associated with other scholarly discipline subjects such as philosophy of engineering,
philosophy of science and ethics of technology.
According to my view, every profession has a certain set of ethics or laws that a practitioner
of such profession has to follow, in order to maintain the trust of society and their colleagues.
These rules define the actions, objectives, guidelines, and policies that are morally justified.
Australian engineering ethics consists of obligation and rights available to a person engaged
in the engineering profession.

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Meaning of Ethics
Engineering is a unique profession requiring high-level skills, strong motivation and serving
a significant amount of individual. Australian engineering ethics defines the law or morels
that an engineer has to follow while performing their duties, to keep the trust of the
community and their colleagues. The code of ethics is different from laws of a profession.
The ethics are related to morality towards the society (Harris 2013).
The guidelines of the code of ethics lay down the conduct or relationship between engineer
and members of community, employer, clients, and peers. The Australian engineering ethics
define the areas involving ethical and philosophical considerations containing the security
and health of public, preservation of the environment, developing technology and assuming
obligation within one’s capability. The guidelines specify the do’s and don’ts in the
relationship and transaction between engineer and employee, clients, and colleagues (Code of
Ethics 2017).
Requirement of Ethics
The law of ethics provides the moral obligations of engineers as realised by occupation and
as signified by a professional community. According to Australian code of ethics, the
important role of ethics includes (Engineers Australia 2010):
 Helping and protecting the community
 Providing direction to engineers
 Creating shared principles
 Contributing the learning
 Preventing misconduct or unlawful activity
 Increasing the profession’s status
There are several cases of engineer’s misconduct that caused harm to the community.
Following are some cases:
1. The Bhopal Disaster: The release of a toxic gas caused immediate death of more than
2200 peoples and around 11000 deaths following the tragedy. More than 42 tons of
methyl isocyanate gas becomes contaminated with water causing the automated

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emergency release in the nearby city of Bhopal. The reason of the disaster was fewer
safety measures and wrong judgements of operators.
2. Fukushima Reactor Meltdown: In 2011, the Fukushima reactor breakdown caused the
release of a radioactive substance into the land and ocean. A report declared the
reason of meltdown was poor regulations of engineers.
3. Hurricane Katarina: A category 3 hurricane hits New Orleans in 2005 causing the
levees burst and more than 80 percent of the city covered with water. The disaster
caused more than 1800 deaths. The United States Corps of Engineers presented the
report stating that due to the low quality of material and incoherent structure the
levees were not able to hold water.
These cases show the requirement of a law of ethics in the occupation. The moral law helps
in securing the life and health of the public and preserves the environment (Harris 2013).
Issues of Engineering Ethics
There are several issues in implementing ethical codes over the engineers according to
Australian engineering ethics committee. There are no particular guidelines for applying the
ethics over the profession. Following are the issues of engineering ethics:
 One of the main issues is to teach the young engineers about the morals. Without
teaching the professional morals to the aspiring engineers, the community cannot trust
the professionals. There are several cases that demonstrate the need for an increase in
awareness of ethical matters into the education of engineering (Loui 2005).
 Principles of engineering ethics are significantly complex and their execution is
considerably tough for the ethical organisations, such as IEEE, ASME, and ASCE.
Engineering programs teach engineers regarding morals of the profession, but they
have many flaws which create various kinds of hurdles in the whole process (Herkert
2002).
 Engineers have to face various kinds of dilemmas where they have to be loyal towards
their employers and at the same time they have to raise the problems which society is
facing due to the acts of their company. In this case, they stand at a position where
they have to take a decision between two rights, which is considered as one of the
most difficult ethical situation.

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Solution for Ethical Issues
Engineering ethics are necessary for health and safety of public and preservation of the
environment. Australian engineering ethical policies should be implemented in every
organisation, so they can minimise the risk of danger to the society and nature (Kline 2001).
According to my view some solutions are mentioned below:
 Aspiring engineers should be taught appropriate lessons relating to ethics and morals
of the profession, so they can imply them in their professional life. This will assist
them in finding mistakes that they can commit at their workplace (Technical
Engineering 2017).
 The government should make strict rules and regulation regarding ethical mistakes, so
engineers should avoid committing them.
 The ethical policies should implemented on a global level so engineers can follow the
same standard and check the ethical mistakes which they are committing in their
personal and professional life (Cruz & Frey 2003).

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Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that the engineering ethics are necessary to apply
in the profession, in order to avoid any danger to the society and environment. The engineers
are responsible towards society, employer, clients and their colleagues. There have been
many cases where ethical issues made a direct impact on the life of individuals. There are
various kinds of ethical issues which can be solved by providing training and education to
aspiring and practicing engineers, so they can promote their learning at a global level.

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References
Code of Ethics | Engineers Australia | Engineers Australia. (2017). Engineers Australia.
Retrieved on 15 August 2017, from https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/ethics
Cruz, J. A., & Frey, W. J. (2003). An effective strategy for integrating ethics across the
curriculum in engineering: An ABET 2000 challenge. Science and Engineering
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Engineers Australia. (2010). Engineers Australia. [PDF file] Retrieved on 15 August 2017,
from https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2017-01/
codeofethics2010.pdf
Harris Jr, C. E., Pritchard, M. S., Rabins, M. J., James, R., & Englehardt, E.
(2013). Engineering ethics: Concepts and cases. Cengage Learning.
Harris Jr, C. E., Pritchard, M. S., Rabins, M. J., James, R., & Englehardt, E.
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Kline, R. R. (2001). Using history and sociology to teach engineering ethics. IEEE
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Loui, M. C. (2005). Ethics and the development of professional identities of engineering
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