Dealing with deal with ethical issues arising from cultural or national differences is considered one crucial challenge that engineers face when working in a global environment. Serval professional engineering societies, in different counties, formulated engineering codes of ethics to uphold the highest level of ethical conduct and maintain standards of practice and professionalism in engineering. However, as conventional engineering practice has been relatively localized to specific cultural context majority of these code of ethics are based on the background conditions existing in a particular society. Also much research shows that most traditional and current engineering codes of ethics were mainly formulated for private sector interest (Simoes, et al., 2007, Riley, 2008). As a result, ethics related to business, leadership, and management have been emphasized, while ethics related to community development and humanitarian work were ignored (Simoes, et al, 2007, (Downey, et al., n.d.). According to Catalano, who reviewed many of the current codes of ethics in the US, the current engineering codes lack “areas relevant to social justice, such as impact on poverty reduction or enhancement” (Kabo, 2010). In addition, Herkert, who analyzed the content of engineering ethics instruction, found that the research and teaching on this topic focus mainly on “micro ethics” (Kabo, 2010). Also Neoliberal ideology and military mindsets are dominant in engineering education and professions. Pawley studied questions such as “who defines engineering problems, who benefits from the engineering problems, and who benefits from the engineering solutions.” She also asked who is left out of engineering solutions. She found “engineers work overwhelmingly in private, profit-oriented organizations and on industrial, commercial, and military problems.” Most engineering problems tend to be large-scale problems with small-scale problems exiled outside of the engineering profession. This military and market-based education influence how conventional engineers define problems and evaluate engineering solutions. (Riley, 2008). Thus, after reviewing the engineering code of ethics, many engineering educators called for a fundamental reconceptualization of engineering ethics based on local and global challenges. This reform should emphasize sustainability, ecological integrity, social and economic justice not just in engineering practice but also in engineering research.
Exploring the website of office of research integrity enhanced my knowledge about ethics on research to another level. I read a case summary of a researcher from department of health and human service who falsified results in 12 publications and progress report of research supported by NIH. The author accepted responsibility for the violations but denied that she intentionally committed them. I could realize that someone might commit one or two falsification report without knowing about them but 12 falsification reports is too much. Especially in research related to health I think researchers should be very conscious about what they are doing as their studies results could impact people life negatively.
Downey, G., Lucena, J., & Mitcham, C. (n.d.). Engineering Ethics and Identity: Emerging Initiatives in Comparative Perspective. Science and Engineering Ethics, 463-487.
Kabo, J. (2010). Seeing Through the Lens of Social Justice: A Threshold for Engineering. Canada: Queen’s University.
Mcisaac, G., & Morey, N. (1998). Engineers’ Role in Sustainable development considering cultural Dynamics. Journal of Proffessional Issues in Engineering and Practice,110-110.
Riley, D. (2008). Engineering and social justice. San Rafael, Calif.Morgan & Claypool.
Simoes, M., Straker, J., Munakata-Marr, J., Leydens, J., Mitcham, C., & Lucena, J. (2007). Theory and Practcice of Humanitarian Ethics in Graduate Engineering Education, American Socity for Engineering Education
Vandersteen, Jonthan Daniel. Humanitarian Engineering in the Enginering Curriculm. Diss. Queen’s U, 2008. Canda,n.p., 2008. Print
Mohammed Baaoum 
This is an interesting post. Yes, for example, different countries with different experiences, cultural backgrounds, and histories different forms of ethical standards, protocols, and regulations on bioengineering research. It will be interesting to see who gets benefits from it while others are marginalized.
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Hi Seohyu. Thanks for writing this interesting point. I agree that protocols and regulations might marginalize some people while empower other or at least we can say that sometimes it is enforced on some groups and leave other groups moves freely. I think it is critical specially in scientific community to have some basic universal ethics that adhere to
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I agree with you in that the researchers must be very careful not to make any research mistakes or having false data especially in research related to health but also there must be very strict methods to prevent this from happening. A higher authority must validate each step in the process and approve them before continue in to other step. I agree that many people can be affected by such mistakes either honestly or intentionally.
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Thanks Nouf for this important point. I agree that it is important to have a procedure at academic institutions to ensure the validity of scientific research before it get published especially in critical such as health. Now it is mainly left to the honesty of researchers which is not enough.
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