Engineering Ethics of Titanic Sinking Essay

In Pinto Fires and Personal Ethics: A Script Analysis of Missed Opportunities, Dennis Gioia relives the case of the Ford Pinto. Throughout the article Gioia questions his involvement in this highly debated issue, consequently wondering where he fit in ethically. This piece brings together the ideas of technical, social, and political ethics, ultimately showing the importance of an engineer’s decision. Overall, I realize that the remorse or consequence of an ethical decision drives the examination of what is moral.

Ethical Case Study of the Teton Dam Failure The collapse of Teton Dam on June 5th 1976 marked one of the greatest civil engineering disasters in modern US history because of the utter lack of ethics that went into the execution of project. The dam failure resulted in the deaths of 14 humans, over 13000 livestock, destroyed over 700 homes, 250 businesses, and damaged another 3000 homes. Despite the mercifully low number of human deaths, this was an accident that never should have occurred in the first place.

William LeMessurier and the Citicorp Tower controversy provide examples of engineering ethics. He followed the NSPE Code of Ethics when dealing with the tower’s faults. The decision to tell his employers and ultimately fix the tower showed that he acknowledged his errors, acted as a faithful agent to his employers, and that he held paramount the safety of the public as seen in professional obligations 1 and the fundamental canons 4 and 1. Even when faced with the moral decision of risking his reputation by fixing the tower, he still thought that the safety of the public was more important than his own personal gain. He was willing to admit his errors and fix the tower.

What caused the“unsinkable” R.M.S Titanic to capsize down to the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean and kill an abundant number of people? The “ R.M.S Titanic” sank due to an assortment of obstacles; however, it can be narrowed down to a few critical things. The survival of people was based on availability of lifeboats and wealth class. Mr Joseph Bruce Ismay was a wealthy businessman who built ships. Mr. Ismay made it away from this tragedy because of his wealth. An iceberg along with the crew’s ignorance and unreadiness caused the R.M.S Titanic to sink to the depths; however, Mr. Ismay along with other wealthy people along with some poor made it out alive.

Some engineers would have buried the design flaw. Instead, LeMessurier set out to confirm the student’s suspicions, confirmed the findings, and set-out to find a solution. Ethics in engineering signify are necessary to leadership since the consequences can be so high.

As an engineer, one makes numerous decisions on a daily basis. When making these decisions, is important to always make sure the decisions being made are ethical. "Right" and "wrong" come up often when making decisions. If the result of a potential decision would not be beneficial to society, that decision should not be made.

The ASME created standards and codes for pressure vessels as well as initiating a precedent for analyzing engineering failures as to help prevent future disasters. Before, even when incidents were sometimes catastrophic, pressure vessels were simply deemed a dangerous line of work. The ASME, along with societies of other engineering disciplines, created a system to diagnose sources of error, which provided a basis from which engineers could innovate solutions. At its core, the method is just a few simple steps: contain the disaster, analyze the failure source, and determine who or what was at fault. With formal societies and rules in place, engineers were more accountable than ever for their projects. However the system for accountability was still incomplete. By 1919, engineering disasters were still catastrophic as a result of questionable practices and judgment. It was around this time that engineering licensure was developed as well as the adaptation of engineering ethics into the analysis of engineering catastrophes. Engineering ethics provided additional insight into why engineers make critical decisions as well as provide a platform for judging these engineers when things go wrong. Now the analysis gained an additional step: was the decision or action that led to failure made ethically or was it morally

The series of ethical issues that took place leading to the disaster are complex, and other factors such as economic and political issues arose after the catastrophe happened. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethical issues that took place before the disaster happened, and investigate the moral obligations, social responsibility and justice at an individual and organizational level. The ethical dilemma is broken down into three categories, which include the company’s management priority to reduce costs and time, neglecting safety issues addressed by staff, human misjudgment and errors in neglecting pressure reading; and finally, overlooking the technical design flaws that were not tested by BP before installing to use. The

The second moral dilemma that we encounter is what the two engineers chose to do with the information they were given. When they returned to the office a few days later the engineers reported what they had learned to the office manager and they began to form a plan for how to use their new information. They decided to do a preemptive strike and approach the client before they went public. The issue here is that they should not have had the information in the first place and they risked the reputation of the subcontractor from whom they got the information. They decided that the end justified the means and proceeded to contact the client. (Rosenstand 2013 p. 232)

In the early 1900s ocean liners were a lucrative business. Carrying passengers across the vast ocean was the most efficient way to travel. White Star Lines had to find a way to lure passengers away from their competitor, Cunard Lines (Encyclopedia Britannica). They decided to build bigger ocean liners, which focused on comfort, as opposed to speed. The Titanic’s hull was designed to withstand a breech in four of its watertight compartments; this made many believe that the ship was unsinkable. Sadly, for those on the ship, this couldn’t be further

On April 14,1912 a great ship called the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. That night there were many warnings of icebergs from other ships. There seems to be a conflict on whether or not the warnings reached the bridge. We may never know the answer to this question. The greatest tragedy of all may be that there were not

Although the accident was caused by a mechanical failure, it spiralled out of control because of an insufficient safety system. BP acted inefficiently and their carelessness cost the lives of people and damaged the environment, nevertheless this does not mean they acted in an unethical way as

If placed in the position of jurors who heard the arguments of 1978, personal consideration would have included benefit and harm, instead of relying on the cost/benefit analysis. Investigation conducted by the prosecution discovered that the engineers for Ford had knowledge of the defect during pre-production crash testing. Contrary to practicing ethically halting production to correct the defect, the automobile manufacturer indicated making changes to the tool design were not cost effective; essentially placing a dollar value on human existence. Ford motors appeared to be concerned with the cost and amount of time necessary to fix problem; rather than the lives lost or people permanently affected by the burning vehicle.

Industrial Engineers often face the ethical dilemma of attempting to balance costs with quality and safety. Company management pressures Industrial systems engineers to design processes that are cost efficient, time constrained, and produce a high quality output. This puts the engineer in a tricky balancing act in which they are trying to make every stakeholder happy. Taking risks in order to create cost efficient solutions is not specific to only industrial engineers but applies to all disciplines of engineering, making this topic a relevant discussion. However, this conflict is especially true in a manufacturing setting where industrial engineers thrive, machine operators are often overworked, companies make products in high stakes, large batches, and the range of quality acceptance is growing ever smaller. A relevant example is the engineer who was designing a chemical plant in Mexico. In order to achieve the correct viscosity of the paint stripper, the engineer asked the plant operator to babysit the chemical mixture and manually release the valve when necessary. Engineering management’s decision puts the plant worker at a safety risk in order to achieve a tighter quality and standardization of the chemical stripper production process. Ultimately, this resulted in the catastrophic death of the plant worker and the destruction of the plant.

Engineering is a pylon of human development and technology,having a significant impact on people’s daily lives. Engineering has improved humanity in every aspect (e.g. transportation, communication, medicine) and it has the potential to overcome the challenges that mankind still faces. However, engineers have responsibility for their actions and they must learn to follow a set of ethical principles relating to their work. All of which have to be followed to the letter otherwise there can be severe consequences.