A balanced outlook on the law

A balanced outlook on the law in professional ethics

1. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS A BALANCED OUTLOOK ON LAW 1

2. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS: Professional ethics are ethics that refer to the moral rules and regulations governing the professional world. EXAMPLE : WHEN YOU ARE A DOCTOR….. Case 1: Politician known for corruption Case 2: A poor old lady (charging 10times of fees) (no fees) This is professional ethics… It depends on whom you show it to. You treat both of them equally but the real help is only to the deserved one. 2

3. The balanced outlook on law in engineering practice stresses the necessity of laws and regulations. And also their limitations in directing and controlling the engineering practice. A BALANCED OUTLOOK ON LAW W HAT IS LAW? It is a body of rules of action prescribed by controlling legal authority and having binding legal force. 3

4. WHY LAWS ARE NECESSARY? People are not fully responsible by themselves.. Because of competitive nature of the free enterprise, which do not encourage moral initiatives They are needed to provide minimum level of compliance. It is also about to live in harmony in the society ,one should learn to maintain balance between individual needs and collective needs of the society. The ethical conduct which can maintain such balance can be applied with the help of laws. 4

5. HOW LAW AND ETHICS RELATED? ETHICS ------- what is ought to do, what is not LAWS ------- standard behavior required for individual 5

6. code for builders (1758 B.C) 6

7. continued… Hammurabi, king of Babylon introduced this code in 1758 If a builder has built a house for a man and has not made his work sound .. The King of Babylon framed following codes for the builders: 7

8. Continued…. CODE 229 : If the house which the builder has built collapses and causes death of the owner of the house the builder shall be put to death. CODE 230 : If it kills the son of the owner …. The son of the builder shall be put to death. 8

9. Continued… CODE 231 : If it kills a slave of the owner, then he shall pay, slave for slave, to the owner of the house CODE 232 : If it ruins the goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined and if the house he bulit fell, he shall re-erect the house from his own means. 9

10. Continued… CODE 233 : If a builder builds a house for someone, even though he has not yet completed it, if the wall seems toppling, the builder must make walls solid from his own means. This code was expected to put in self-regulation seriously in those years… 10

11. United States STEAMBOAT CODE (1852 AD) 11

12. Earlier in 1838 law that had proved a weak attempt to enforce vessel’s operators compliance with safety standard measures. Inspections done on: Periodic hull Boilers Basic life-saving and fire-fighting equipments CONTINUED… 12

13. Continued… In the 8 months preceding passage again an act passed in 1852 by U.S Congress... Seven boiler explosions aboard steamboats claimed more than 700 hundred lives. It was the second attempt to ensure the safety of steamboats . U.S Congress responded to these disasters by establishing precise for steamboat boiler construction, including rules about safety valves and operating pressures. 13

14. Continued… Steam engines are very large and heavy. James Watt, Oliver Evans and Richard Trevethik removed the condensers and made compact. Explosions of boiler happened on steam boats, because of the high speed of the boats. The safety valves were unable to keep steam pressure up causing explosion. 14

15. STEAMBOAT SULTANA In 1865, the boiler blew up on Sultana steam boat which was en route Memphis Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri..… The explosion and resulting fire claimed 1500 lives out of 2300 people on board. Inspection Service had certified the Sultana to carry only 376 passengers, it was cleared of any blame. At last, the operators were held responsible for the disaster. 15

16. Continued… Nevertheless, Congress subsequently passed a law for inspection of the safety aspects of ships and their boilers and engines. 1871 act gave the service authority to issue license to masters, pilots, and engineers. It has turned out to be ineffective due to the corruptions of the inspectors and inadequate training regarding the safety checking. 16

17. Afred Guthire , an engineer of Illinoise had inspected about 200 steam boats on his own cost . He found out the reason for the boiler explosions and made a report. His recommendations were published by a Senator Shields of Ilinoise and incorporated in Senate documents . Now it is in the hands of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers who formulated the standards for producing steam boats. Continued… 17

18. Space shuttle challenger The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster is well known to us. It happened on January 28, 1986 in the Unites States space program. It broke apart 73 seconds into its flight killing all seven crew members aboard. The crew consists of 5 NASA astronauts and 2 payload specialists. The space craft disintegrated over the Atlantic ocean at 11.39 a.m 18

19. Continued… Challenger space shuttle mainly consisted of an orbiter two solid propellant boosters single liquid-propeller booster, which was actually designed to be a reusable one. All the boosters were ignited and the orbiter took a lift-off from the earth. The disintegration of the vehicle began after a joint in its right solid rock booster failed at lift off. 19

20. Continued… The failure was caused by the failure of O-rings seals used in the joint that were not designed to handle the unusually cold conditions that existed that launch. The shuttle had no escape system. The crew survived the explosion and died upon impact with the ocean. 20

21. delay in the launch The mission was originally scheduled for July 1985, but was delayed to November and subsequently to January 27,1986. The number of tele -conferences further delayed the previous testing in 1985 itself. The cold weather problem and long discussions went on among the engineers. Bad weather forced further delays, and the STS-51-L launch was rescheduled for January 28. The launch was scheduled for 9:38 a.m , but was delayed for two hours to allow ice to melt. Later, the launch further got delayed due to a problem in micro switch in the hatch-locking mechanism. Finally ,STS-51-L launched at 11:38 a.m from the Kennedy Space Centre. 21

22. BEFORE LAUNCH… Engineers gave a presentation to convince that the cold weather would exaggerate the problems of joint rotation and delayed O-ring seating. The lowest temperature experienced by the O-rings in previous mission was 53°F,. So they asked to delay the launch as O-ring erosion was found at this temperature. The managers seemed to believe the O-rings could be eroded up to one third of their diameter and still seat properly, regardless of the temperature. The new recommendation stated that launch was recommended, even though the engineers had no part in writing the new recommendation 22

23. THE LAUNCH During the night, temperatures dropped to as low as 8°F. In order to keep the water pipes in the launch platform from freezing, safety showers and fire hoses had been turned on. Some of this water had accumulated, and ice had formed all over the platform. The ice inspection team thought the situation was of great concern, but the launch director decided to go ahead with the countdown. The key personal who had to authorize the launch were not aware of the teleconference about the solid rocket boosters that had taken place the night before. 23

24. Challenger accident 24

25. Roger’s commission The formation of Roger’s commission, a special commission appointed by US President Ronald Reagen to investigate the accident. They found that NASA’s organization and decision making process had been a key factors to the accident. NASA managers had known since 1977 that Morton-Thiokol’s design contained a catastrophic flaw in the O-rings, but they failed to address this problem properly. They also disregarded warnings from engineers about the danger of launching posed by the low temp of that morning and failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors. 25

26. ISSUES One of the most important issues deals with engineers who are placed in management positions. It is important that these managers not ignore their own engineering experience, or the expertise of their subordinate engineers. The fact is that managers encouraged launching due to the fact that there was insufficient low temperature data. Since there was not enough data available to make an informed decision, this was not, in their opinion, grounds for stopping a launch. This was a reversal in the thinking that went on in the early years of the space program, which discouraged launching until all the facts were known about a particular problem. 26

27. ROLE OF LAWS Good laws when enforced effectively produce benefits. They establish minimal standards of professional conduct and provide motivation to people. They serve as moral support and defense for the people who are willing to act ethically. 27

28. CONCLUSION… The rule which govern engineering practice should be constructed as responsible experimentation. Precise rules and sanctions are suitable in case of ethical misconduct that involves the violation of established engineering procedures. They should not compel the engineers to follow the rigid course of action. The regulations should be broad, but make engineers accountable for their decisions. 28

29. Continued… Every major engineering code of ethics reminds engineers the importance of their responsibility to keep the safety and well being of the public at the top of their list of priorities. Although company loyalty is important, it must not be allowed to override the engineer's obligation to the public. As future engineers, we must continually keep the code of ethics in mind in any job we do… As it could be the difference between life and death for those involved. 29

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