The Sustainability Imperative - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 253

well be legal, and even professionally permissible, but may still fall below the
ethical threshold if reasonable people consider it to be wrong.
14. L. Kohlberg, The Philosophy of Moral Development , Vol. 1, Harper & Row,
San Francisco, CA, 1981.
15. J. Piaget, The Moral Judgment of the Child , Free Press, New York, 1965.
16. J. R. Rest, Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory , Praeger, New
York, 1986; and J. D. Rest, D. Narvaez, M. J. Bebeau, and S. J. Thoma, Post-
conventional Moral Thinking: A Neo-Kohlbergian Approach, Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 1999.
17. R. Duska and M. Whelan, Moral Development: A Guide to Piaget and Kohlberg,
Paulist Press, New York, 1975.
18. Hence, the engineering profession's emphasis on experience and mentorship.
19. J. A. Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA,
1785, and Kant, Foundations , 1785.
20. This wording is quite interesting. It omits public safety . However, safety is
added under professional obligations that biomedical engineers “use their
knowledge, skills, and abilities to enhance the safety, health, and welfare of
the public.” The other interesting word choice is consideration . Some of us
would prefer obligations instead. These compromises may indicate the realities
of straddling the design and medical professions. For example, there may
be times when the individual patient needs supersede those of the general
public, and vice versa.
21. Foreword to The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness , Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons, New York, 1944.
22. Martin Luther King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in Why We Can't Wait ,
HarperCollins, New York, 1963.
23. Presidential Executive Order 12898, “Federal actions to address environmen-
tal justice in minority populations and low − income populations” February

11, 1994.
24. For example, this is the fourth canon of the American Society of Civil Engi-
neers' Code of Ethics , adopted in 1914 and most recently amended November
10, 1996. This canon reads: “Engineers shall act in professional matters for
each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, and shall avoid conflicts
of interest.”
25. Even this is a challenge for environmental justice communities, since certain
sectors of society are less likely to visit hospitals or otherwise receive early
health care attention. This is not only a problem of assessment, but can
lead to more serious, long-term problems compared to those of the general
population.
26. W. Burke, D. Atkins, M. Gwinn, A. Guttmacher, J. Haddow, J. Lau, G. Palo-
maki, N. Press, C. S. Richards, L. Wideroff, and G. L. Wiesner. “Genetic test