As technology develops, we often face issues that push the limits of what we consider to be acceptable. The recent success of a Scottish laboratory in cloning a sheep has us all considering the staggering possibility of cloning humans. Is that acceptable? What problems could arise? What legal issues are raised?

Keep in mind the difference between "illegal" and "unethical". An action is only illegal if some governing body has passed a law prohibiting that action. In the U.S., any action that is not expressly proscribed by law is considered to be legal. (This is not true in every country. Some of the more authoritarian societies state that unless there is a law allowing an action, it is illegal.) In contrast, the term ethical implies that an action falls within the allowable actions of a particular group within society. Whether an action is unethical or not depends on the moral understandings of the individual and the groups to which she or he chooses to belong. Members of some religious denominations consider it wrong to gamble. For a member of that group to buy a lottery ticket would be unethical. What is ethical to you may be unethical to the person sitting next to you!

The diagram below indicates the possible states for an action. Any action that falls outside the two ellipses is both legal and ethical - there are no proscriptions against them. Actions that fall into the ellipse on the left are unethical, while the ellipse on the right encloses all those actions that are illegal. Only the actions that fall into the area where the two ellipses overlap are illegal and unethical.

Note that violating the rules in either case carries a penalty. Actions that are illegal are subject to arrest, fines, imprisonment, and even death. Actions that are unethical may cause the member to be punished by the group - by some internal set of penalties, or by removal from the group. Doctors in violation of the AMA Code of Ethics may lose their rights to practice for a time, may be required to take ethics classes, or in extreme cases may be barred from ever practicing medicine again.

Most of our actions are both legal and ethical. There is no law against them, and they do not violate the limits set by the groups to which we belong. And most actions that are illegal are clearly unethical - murder, robbery, etc. But some actions fall into areas that are unclear. Speeding on the highway is clearly illegal, but many of us do it. It is acceptable within the bounds that we and the groups we are in have set for us, and is therefore ethical for us. Note that what is ethical to one person or group may be unethical for another. Speeding is an illegal but ethical activity for most people. (If you speed, but won’t tell anyone because you think it’s wrong, its illegal and unethical, but you choose to do it anyway!)

Some actions are unethical but legal. There is no law preventing you from watching the obituaries in the paper and then approaching recently widowed spouses with kids about buying their homes. Most people would consider that disgusting, and would never do it. It’s unethical to us, but its not illegal. Likewise, had Princess Diana been killed in the U.S., there is no law requiring a passerby to assist an accident victim (as there is in France). The paparazzi who stood by and photographed the damage might be doing something unethical, but not illegal.

Consider the following situations, and classify them as legal or illegal, ethical or unethical:

1. Having a beer at a friend’s house before you’re 21 years old.

2. Having a beer in your dorm room if you’re older than 21.

3. Performing an emergency tracheotomy to save someone’s life.

4. Killing someone in a military battle.

5. Testing cancer drugs on lab animals.

6. Cloning a person with leukemia in order to harvest the bone marrow needed to save her life.

Engineers, as a group of professionals, are held to a set of ethical standards that define the actions they may take. If you join a society such as the American Society of Civil Engineers, you must agree to adhere to their code of ethics. ASCE’s Code of Ethics is summarized in their fundamental canons:

1. Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties.

2. Engineers shall perform services only in their areas of competence.

3. Engineers shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.

4. Engineers shall act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, and shall avoid conflicts of interest.

5. Engineers shall build their professional reputation on the merit of their services and shall not compete unfairly with others.

6. Engineers shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the engineering profession.

7. Engineers shall continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall provide opportunities for the professional development of those engineers under their supervision.

Many situations in your professional life can be handled by applying these canons directly - you don’t issue public statements to benefit your client if you know they are inaccurate. You don’t accept a gift from a vendor whose product you specified in a design. But in some situations, the canons cause conflict for the engineer.

Consider a consulting engineer who has been hired to analyze a catastrophic failure by the defense attorneys for the design engineer. The consulting engineer studies the situation and determines that the design engineer made a simple miscalculation that led to the disaster. The attorney decides that those results would be harmful to his client’s case, and tells the consultant that her services are no longer needed. She must now weigh the relative importance of canons 1 and 4. She must act as a faithful agent for the people who hired her (and who now want her to say nothing), but she must also hold paramount the safety of the public. If the error is simple, and could happen again, should not the public be told so that other engineers may avoid it in future? Violating either canon could cause her to lose her license.

Think back to the video "Gilbane Gold" and answer these questions: