Question of ethics

摘要

In engineering the answers to most questions fall into two categories - those that are right and those that are wrong. But when engineers are faced with making decisions that have an ethical dimension, they often find that absolute certainties and clear-cut solutions are much more elusive. The complex nature and increased prominence of ethics in engineering led the Engineering Council UK (ECUK), the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) and the Engineering Professors' Council (EPC) to hold a one-day workshop that looked at how the subject could be incorporated into degree programmes and how accreditation processes could accommodate it. The event, which took place last month, attracted over 50 delegates - most of them academics and staff from professional engineering institutions. The workshop opened with scene-setting presentations from Professor Ernest Shannon - who gave an account of the history of professional codes and the evolution of the recently published ECUK/ RAEng 'Statement of Ethical Principles' -and Sheffield University's Professor Ian Howard, who introduced the RAEng/EPC engineering curriculum map that has been developed as a guide for academics. In the group sessions that followed, delegates from similar engineering disciplines discussed a wide range of ethical topics that might be included in undergraduate curricula - such as confidentiality, bribery, loyalty, conflicts of interest and shared responsibility. It was generally agreed that there are many grey areas where there is no right or wrong and doubt exists over what constitutes a whistle-blowing issue. This poses a particular challenge for engineering students, who are used to seeking a right answer.