Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3
This distinction between caveat and trust can be found in Everett C. Hughes' excellent article
“Professions,” in
Ethical
Issues
in
Professional
Life
, ed. J.C. Callahan (New York, NY: Oxford
University Press, 1988). Hughes is quoted at the beginning of this chapter. In one form or another,
I mention this in my engineering and professional ethics courses and lectures. The reading was
originally recommended to me by my esteemed colleague (now twice retired from Duke and Bucknell),
P. Aarne Vesilind.
4
Quoted by Ian Jackson,
Honor
in
Science, p. 7. Sigma Xi, Research Triangle Park, NC, 1956, from
J. Bronowski,
Science
and
Human
Values
(New York: Messner, 1894), 73.
5
C.E. Harris Jr., M.S. Pritchard, and M.J. Rabins,
Engineering
Ethics:
Concepts
and
Cases
(Belmont,
California: Wadsworth Publishing, 1995).
6
I ask the following question: Is DDT bad or good? By and large, the initial response of liberal
arts and engineering students alike is that it is “bad.” This makes for an energetic discussion, as
some of the facts in this box are shared. Older adults, especially of the World War II era, are more
likely to consider DDT to be “good.” It is interesting how an arrangement of carbon, hydrogen, and
chlorine atoms can be either good or bad (perhaps “beneficial” and “harmful” are preferable). This is
a profound example of anthropomorphism.
7
R. Carson,
Silent
Spring
(Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1962).
8
P.H. Müller, 1948, “Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane and Newer Insecticides,”
Nobel
Lecture
,
11 December 1948, Stockholm, Sweden.
9
The term “organic” is sometimes unclear in various environmental and medical contents. In this usage,
the term means that these pesticide compounds contain at least one carbon-to-carbon or carbon-to-
hydrogen covalent bond. In contemporary usage, the term
organic
can also mean the opposite of
synthetic
or even
natural
, such as pesticides and nutrients that are derived from plant extracts, like
pyrethrin from the chrysanthemum flower or herbs that provide homeopathic benefits. This is another
example of how even within the scientific community, we are not clear in what we mean, making
bioethical dialogue difficult.
10
J.D. Graham and J.B. Wiener, “Confronting Risk Tradeoffs,” in
Risk
versus
Risk:
Tradeoffs
in
Protecting
Health
and
the
Environment
, ed. J.D. Graham and J.B. Wiener (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1995).
11
C. Vee and R.M. Skitmore, Professional Ethics in the Construction Industry,
Engineering
Construction
and
Architectural
Management
10, no. 2 (2003): 117-27. This quote includes two embedded citations
to Cardyn Whitbeck,
Ethics
in
Engineering
Practice
and
Research
(Cambridge, UK: University
Press, 1998 ).
12
R.M. Gula,
Reason
Informed
by
Faith:
Foundations
of
Catholic
Morality
(New York, NY: Paulist
Press, 1989).
13
Ibid.
14
S. Freud, “The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis,”
American
Journal
of
Psychology
21,
no. 2 (1910): 196-218.
15
The video “Professional Ethics and Engineering” produced by Duke's Program in Science, Technology
and Human Values presents a case of a foundation engineer who knew that the soil type and mechanical
properties were unacceptable to support the foundation. However, the engineer said nothing because
it “was not his job.” As a result, a wall failed, killing and injuring a number of people. The case is
complicated because the engineer was trained and practiced in a former East Bloc communist system,
