Ethical Engineering: Definitions, Theories and Techniques - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 32

Fig. 2.2 Law and morality (From Seedhouse 1988 )
However, the term amoral tends to be used to refer to people with little understand-
ing of morality rather than to actions.
Examples of activities which are illegal and moral include:
• Blocking the road by chaining wheelchairs across it in order to protest against
nuclear weapons or improve the rights of disabled people.
• Breaking import and other regulations in order to supply HIV-positive people
with cost-free treatment.
Examples of activities which are legal and immoral include the following:
• Cutting the budget for higher education or assistive technology, thereby depriving
people of education or technology that could make them more independent and
give them access to education and employment.
• Making asylum seekers who have been tortured but have failed the bureaucratic
process destitute and evicting them from their accommodation.
Ethical behaviour requires you to obey the law except where it is immoral and
may require you to go beyond the law. You also have some degree of ethical respon-
sibility to raise awareness of unethical aspects of legislation and to work together
with other people for changes in this legislation. In some extreme cases, you could
even have the responsibility to break unethical laws.