---
title: "Engineering ethics"
chunk: 3/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_ethics"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:23:00.330545+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

A basic ethical dilemma is that an engineer has the duty to report to the appropriate authority a possible risk to others from a client or employer failing to follow the engineer's directions. According to first principles, this duty overrides the duty to a client and/or employer. An engineer may be disciplined, or have their license revoked, even if the failure to report such a danger does not result in the loss of life or health.
If an engineer is overruled by a non-technical authority or a technical authority they must inform the authority, in writing, the reasons for their advice and the consequences of the deviation from the advice.
In many cases, this duty can be discharged by advising the client of the consequences in a forthright matter, and ensuring the client takes the engineer's advice. In very rare cases, where even a governmental authority may not take appropriate action, the engineer can only discharge the duty by making the situation public. As a result, whistleblowing by professional engineers is not an unusual event, and courts have often sided with engineers in such cases, overruling duties to employers and confidentiality considerations that otherwise would have prevented the engineer from speaking out.

=== Conduct ===
There are several other ethical issues that engineers may face. Some have to do with technical practice, but many others have to do with broader considerations of business conduct. These include:

Relationships with clients, consultants, competitors, and contractors
Ensuring legal compliance by clients, client's contractors, and others
Conflict of interest
Bribery and kickbacks, which also may include:
Gifts, meals, services, and entertainment
Treatment of confidential or proprietary information
Consideration of the employer's assets
Outside employment/activities (Moonlighting)
Some engineering societies are addressing environmental protection as a stand-alone question of ethics.

== Case studies and key individuals ==
Petroski notes that most engineering failures are much more involved than simple technical mis-calculations and involve the failure of the design process or management culture. However, not all engineering failures involve ethical issues. The infamous collapse of the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the losses of the Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter were technical and design process failures. Nor are all engineering ethics issues necessary engineering failures per se - Northwestern University instructor Sheldon Epstein cited The Holocaust as an example of a breach in engineering ethics despite (and because of) the engineers' creations being successful at carrying out the Nazis' mission of genocide. There is the ethical issue of whether engineers consider vulnerability to hostile intent — such as attacks on governmental buildings or industrial sites — with the same rigor as they consider other universal risks, regardless of project specifications. Lysenkoism is a specific form of ethical failure that occurs when engineers (or scientists) allow political agendas to take precedence over professional ethics.
These episodes of engineering failure include ethical as well as technical issues:

Titan submersible implosion (2023)
General Motors ignition switch recalls (2014)
Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010)
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster (2003)
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986)
Therac-25 accidents (1985 to 1987)
Chernobyl disaster (1986)
Bhopal disaster (1984)
Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse (1981)
Love Canal (1980), Lois Gibbs
Three Mile Island accident (1979)
Citigroup Center (1978),
Ford Pinto safety problems (1970s)
Minamata disease (1908–1973)
Aberfan disaster (1966)
Chevrolet Corvair safety problems (1960s), Ralph Nader, and Unsafe at Any Speed
Boston molasses disaster (1919)
Quebec Bridge collapse (1907), Theodore Cooper
Johnstown Flood (1889), South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club
Tay Bridge Disaster (1879), Thomas Bouch, William Henry Barlow, and William Yolland
Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (1876), Amasa Stone

== Notes ==

== References ==
American Society of Civil Engineers (2010) [1914]. Code of Ethics. Reston, Virginia, USA: ASCE Press. Archived from the original on 2011-02-14. Retrieved 2011-12-07.
American Society of Civil Engineers (2000). Ethics Guidelines for Professional Conduct for Civil Engineers (PDF). Reston, Virginia, USA: ASCE Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2013-11-30.
Institution of Civil Engineers (2004). Royal Charter, By-laws, Regulations and Rules. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
Layton, Edwin (1986). The Revolt of the Engineers: Social Responsibility and the American Engineering Profession. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-3287-X.
Petroski, Henry (1985). To Engineer is Human: the Role of Failure in Successful Design. St Martins Press. ISBN 0-312-80680-9.
National Society of Professional Engineers (2007) [1964]. Code of Ethics (PDF). Alexandria, Virginia, USA: NSPE. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2006-10-20.

== Further reading ==
Alford, C.F. (2002). Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power, Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801487804, 192 pp.
Fleddermann, C.B. (2011). Engineering Ethics, Prentice Hall, 4th edition. ISBN 978-0132145213, 192pp.
Glazer, M.P. (1991).Whistleblower,  New York, NY: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465091744, 306pp.
Harris, C.E., M.S. Pritchard, and M.J. Rabins (2008).Engineering Ethics: Concept and Cases,  Wadsworth Publishing, 4th edition. ISBN 978-0495502791, 332 pp.
Peterson, Martin (2020). Ethics for Engineers, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190609191, 256 pp.
Huesemann, Michael H., and Joyce A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment, Chapter 14, “Critical Science and Social Responsibility”, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, ISBN 0865717044, 464 pp.
Martin, M.W., and R. Schinzinger (2004). Ethics in Engineering,  McGraw-Hill, 4th edition. ISBN 978-0072831153, 432 pp.
Van de Poel, I., and L. Royakkers (2011). Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-444-33095-3, 376 pp.

== External links ==

=== Australia ===
Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia
Ethical Decision Making
Engineers Australia
Code of Ethics Archived 2012-05-26 at the Wayback Machine