chapter 7 case study: engineering ethics and principles

CASE STUDY ON ETHICAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE - CHAPTER 7

Date: October 27, 2015

Course Section: 5IE-A

Submitted by:

Ignacio, Inna Ysabel 2011029495

Miranda, Jamille Kriza 2011035337

Reyes, Hazel Anne 2011033256

Uy, Queenie Ysabel 2011033180

I. Executive Summary

The cases on this chapter were about Environmental, Computer, and Research

Ethics. Environmental ethics talks about the responsibility of engineers to incorporate

“green engineering” or “sustainable design” to products so that it will give no harm to our

environment. Computer ethics talks about “hacking” using the computer itself, and using

improperly a computer software as an engineering tool. Lastly, Research ethics talks

about honesty in conducting research experiments and reporting its results.

The first two cases are both about medical radiation overdose accidents brought

by radiation therapy machines. The main reasons for these were errors in software and

systems engineering, and various human errors. There were bugs in the software and it

lacked safety system in case of malfunctions which caused the slow painful death of the

patients. Possible alternative for these situations is the installation of hardware safety

systems and software modules. In this way, if the system breaks down, manuals can be

used by the operator to implement corrective actions. As a result, radiation poisoning will

be prevented and patients can be assured that they are receiving proper and safe

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treatment. The case about Isleta Pueblo was different among the other cases. It shows as a

good example of utility ethics where the government chose the action where most

number of people will likely benefit. Moreover, discharging waste into a river is ethically

wrong and violates the right ethics of each individual living near that river. The best

alternative for this case is to treat the wastewater before discharging it to the river. In this

way, adverse health effects can be prevented. On the other hand, the last three cases

revolve around recognized researchers conducting scientific studies and modifying the

actual results to come up with better outcomes. This kind of practice is ethically wrong

and violates some codes of ethics. As a consequence, those researchers faced humiliation

and skepticism from other researchers all over the world. These researchers should have

reported the results of the experiments truthfully. If they did not obtain desirable results,

one thing they could have done is to do further research rather than publish an unreliable

study.

In summary, the group recommends that engineers, on designing a certain project,

should always take the health and safety of the people seriously. Moreover, inspections in

every experiment should be done thoroughly. As for putting the results of the

experiments in writing, one should deliver it with all honesty.

II. Statement of the Problem

1. Accidental Overdoses in Medical Radiation Therapy Machines

● The Therac-25 was a machine mostly used for radiation therapy of cancer

patients. It was produced by a Canadian company, the Atomic Energy of

Canada Ltd. (AECL). This machine uses a dual-mode linear accelerator to

deliver X-ray photons or electrons. The electrons are used to treat tumors

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relatively close to the surface, while the X-ray photons are used

therapeutically on deeper tumors. Unlike the previous versions of Therac

machines, the Therac-25 was highly controlled by computer software and

did not contain any hardware safety devices.

● The use of the machine lead to many accidents that involved overdosing

and radiation poisoning of cancer patients. The accidents were caused by

the unexpected malfunctioning of the machines. Investigations cited two

major areas of concern for these accidents: Systems Engineering and

Software Engineering. The machine had an exclusive reliance on the

software. The software engineers did not test the software enough to

ensure the safety in using it. Moreover, these accidents also happen

because of the increasing complexity of the machines used in radiation

therapy.

● Over 621 radiation treatment mistakes were reported between January

2001 and January 2009 due to hardware malfunctions, software

malfunctions, and various human errors.

2. Trade Secrets of Cadence Design Systems were stolen by Avanti Corporation

● Cadence Design Systems is said to be the largest supplier of electronic

design automation products (EDA). One of their competitors was Avanti

Corporation.

● On December 1995, the police and FBI agents raided the headquarters of

Avanti to look for evidence that trade secrets owned by Cadence had been

stolen and incorporated to Avanti products. Cadence filed a civil lawsuit

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and claimed that over 60,000 lines of code developed by their software

engineers had been used by Avanti.

● Eight employees of Avanti were indicted with criminal charges. These

employees were discovered to be former Cadence employees. Seven of

these employees plead “no contest”. All of them received various fines.

Five of them received jail time of one upto 6 years. Cadence also sought

hundreds of million dollars in compensation from Avanti for the use of

Cadence’s intellectual property.

3. Conflict between city of Albuquerque and Isleta Pueblo

● Isleta Pueblo is an Indian tribe located in Rio Grande and contains over

900,000 people. The federal law states that Indian tribes are sovereign

nations with the wide-ranging ability to self-regulate but are still subject to

federal laws and some restrictions imposed by the states.

● This Indian tribe has a tradition of drinking water directly from the river

during religious ceremonies. Because of this tradition, Isleta Pueblo raised

concerns regarding the concentration of arsenic in the river water. The

arsenic concentration was due to the sewage treatment plant of the city of

Albuquerque.

● The plant meets all applicable Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

regulations, including the standard for arsenic concentration. Despite this,

Isleta Pueblo used its sovereign status to try to enforce a stricter water

quality standard. The EPA sided with the pueblo while the city of

Albuquerque contended that meeting the new standard will be costly. The

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US Supreme Court turned down Albuquerque’s appeal and allowed new

EPA water and arsenic standards based on Isleta Pueblo’s requirements.

4. Questions on Validity of N-Rays

● A french physicist, Rene Blondlot, claimed to have discovered a new type

of radiation which he called N-rays. He claimed that he had generated N-

rays using a hot wire inside an iron tube. The rays were detected by a

calcium sulfide thread that glowed slightly in the dark when the rays were

refracted through a 60-degree angle prism of aluminum. According to

Blondlot, a narrow stream of N-rays was refracted through the prism and

produced a spectrum on a field. The N-rays were reported to be invisible,

except when viewed as they hit the treated thread. Blondlot moved the

thread across the gap where the N-rays were thought to come through and

when the thread was illuminated it was said to be due to N-rays.

● Various scientists tried the same experiment and confirmed the existence

of N-rays in their own laboratories. However, some scientists questioned

the validity of the existence of N-rays because they were not able to

replicate the same results.

● An American physicist, Robert Wood, was sent to investigate Blondlot’s

discovery of N-rays. At the end of his investigation and after some

incidents, Wood reported that there were no N-rays and the French

scientists deceived themselves.

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5. Skepticism Arose on the Discovery of Cold Fusion

● “The process by which two atoms join together, or fuse, into a single

heavier atom is called fusion. Fusion is the energy source of stars, like our

sun — where it takes place at about 27,000,000° F.” (Understanding

Science Website)

● On March 1989, electrochemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman

claimed that they have produced fusion at room temperature which they

called “cold fusion”. The heat production was attributed to the breakdown

of the heavy water due to electrolysis, where the deuterium was thought to

get to a density sufficient to initiate fusion.

● Skepticism arose regarding the discovery of cold fusion because Pon-

Fleischman experiments did not show that the reaction of deuterium

produced copius amounts of tritium. Because of this, an internal

investigation was done by Texas A&M University. The panel found that

there were lapses in proper scientific procedure,

6. Ghostwriting of Medical Research Articles

● “The ghost-writers in medicine are medical writers used by

pharmaceutical companies or contract research organizations and medical

communication agencies that serve the industry. Some medical writers are

employed by the industry or its service agencies, others are self-employed

and work under contract… Articles written by medical writers are

published in medical journals. These articles can influence doctors and

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policy makers in their decisions that affect health.” (Mens Sana

Monographs, 2008).

● Most of the researches conducted in universities are funded by

pharmaceutical companies.

● One of the ethical issues involved here is the introduction of bias into a

medical research article when the author has financial ties to the drug

industry. If one of the main contributors is paid directly by a drug

manufacturer, the objectivity and validity of the research is questioned.

III. Causes of the Problem

1. Accidental Overdoses in Medical Radiation Therapy Machines

Accidental overdoses in medical radiation therapy machines caused development

of symptoms of severe radiation poisoning that eventually lead to the slow painful death of the

patients. The main reasons for these were errors in software engineering and systems

engineering. There were bugs in the software and it lacked safety system in case of malfunctions.

Human errors also contributed to the accidents when the operators continued with the procedure

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even if there were malfunctions. Also, the operators became quite proficient and fast in entering

data.

2. Trade Secrets of Cadence Design Systems were stolen by Avanti Corporation

Cadence claimed that up to 60,000 lines of code developed by its own software

engineers had been used by Avanti. The former Cadence employees who transferred to Avanti

Corporation were blamed in this crime. Both Avanti Corporation and Cadence Design Systems

were situated in the Silicon Valley and so it is common for employees to quit in one company

and move to another.

3. Conflict between city of Albuquerque and Isleta Pueblo

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Conflict between the two cities developed because Albuquerque sewage treatment

plant puts water into the Rio Grande where Isleta Pueblo is located. The Pueblo used water

directly from the river for drinking during religious ceremonies and so they want the water from

the river to be potable. Hence, the conflict worsened when the Pueblo demanded to enforce a

stricter water quality standard for the water discharge by Albuquerque.

4. Questions on Validity of N-Rays

Blondlot claimed to have discovered a new form of radiation and so other

scientists also tried his experiment in an attempt to reproduce the results he reported. Prof J.W.

Wood traveled to Nancy to observe the experiments firsthand. However, Wood didn’t see the

expected results and reported no correlation on the assumption of Blondlot regarding the N-rays.

As more research was performed, it became clear to the French that there were no N-rays.

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5. Skepticism Arose on the Discovery of Cold Fusion

Skepticism arose on the discovery of Cold Fusion by Stanley Pons and Marley

Fleischmann of the University of Utah. Their discovery didn’t behave according to the old rules

and the panel later claimed that it was due to the lapses in proper scientific procedure. Moreover,

it was claimed that the results were due to problems with the measurements and inadvertent

contamination.

6. Ghostwriting of Medical Research Articles

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Research taking place in universities is funded by pharmaceutical companies and

there were reports on ghostwriting of research articles by pharmaceutical companies. Thus, the

researchers incorporated significant amounts of material written by employees of drug

companies into their own research but there was no acknowledgement of their contribution.

IV. Decision Criteria and Alternative Solutions

Accidental Overdoses in Medical Radiation Therapy System

Alternative Solution Pros Cons

Install hardware safety

systems to therapy radiation

machines.

Installing safety systems

will prevent patients from

accidents.

Safety systems will increase

the overall cost of the

radiation machine.

Test the software modules

and include documentation

on the manuals.

If an error occurred during

the treatment, the operator

will just look at the manuals

and follow the instructions.

In this way, accidents can

be prevented.

Testing the software is time-

consuming and costly.

Radiation Problems Continue


Design systems in such a

way that it is easy to operate

If quality is incorporated at

the design phase of a

A user-friendly system may

be costly.

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and simple for operators to

use properly.

system, possibilities of

failure can be prevented.

Avanti Corp vs Cadence Design System


Intellectual property should

be patented.

This will prevent a

corporation or company

from having charges.

Having the property

patented may be of conflict

with the company’s interest.

Train employees to be loyal

on the company.

This would prevent

employees from quitting

and moving to competing

companies.

Training employees is an

additional cost for the

company. Also, there are

really employees who would

want to shift to another

company to earn more profit

and recognition.

The City of Albuquerque vs. Isleta Pueblo Water Case

Alternative Solutions Pros Cons

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Follow water quality

standard for discharging

wastewater to the river.

Conducting a correct waste

water treatment will prevent

adverse health effects to

those people who get their

drinking water in the river.

Following the norm can be

costly. The wastewater

procedure is also time-

consuming.

The N-Ray Case


Experiments should be

conducted in a way that it

will be credible enough to

be published.

Conducting experiments

that are credible will avoid

any criticisms from other

people.

Conducting several

experiments time-

consuming. It may also give

different results which

prohibits the publication of

a particular discovery.

Admit honestly if one’s

claim was found to be

infeasible.

If the discovery was found

infeasible, this situation will

pursue other scientists to do

more research.

Scientists all over the world

will criticize your works

once they have found that

one of your claims seemed

to be not credible.

The Case of Cold Fusion at Texas A&M University


Researchers should be Performing experiments Performing experiments in

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responsible for performing

their experiments in an

objective manner.

objectively will give an

accurate result.

an objective manner can be

of conflict with personal

interests.

Proper scientific procedure

should be followed.

Following the correct

procedures will give an

accurate result.

Results may be a failure and

such failure will earn

criticisms from other

researchers.

Ghostwriting of Research Articles


Results of experiments

should be reported

truthfully.

Publishing truthful results

will prevent your work from

being called into question.

Reporting the correct results

of an experiment can

interfere with one’s personal

interest on the subject

matter.

V. Recommended Solution

Various unethical issues were shown in the seven cases. In the first two cases,

radiation therapy machines malfunctioned because of the failed design of its hardware

and software. The systems and the software engineers were held liable to this problem.

The group recommends that in designing, an engineer should always consider the health

and safety of the people. They must also be thorough in testing their design before

releasing it to their customers. Moreover, fail-safe mechanisms should be incorporated in

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the design of a product to secure safety of using it. This mechanism would help prevent

the machine from causing harm. As for the case “Avanti Corp vs Cadence Design

Systems”, the group recommends that intellectual property should be kept secret and

companies should train employees on handling trade secrets. In the case “The City of

Albuquerque vs Isleta Pueblo Water Case”, the group recommends that the government

should thoroughly weigh the balance between the benefit and cost of a certain issue. They

can apply utility ethics on these cases so that a large portion of the society will benefit.

For “The N-Ray Case”, the group recommends that in exposing the results of the

experiments, it should be done with all honesty; especially when it requires publications.

“The Case of Cold Fusion at Texas A&-M University” the person responsible for the

project is the one who should be doing the experiments. Moreover, proper procedures

should be followed while conducting an experiment. Lastly, for the case “Ghostwriting of

Research Articles”, the group recommends that in writing research articles, one shouldn’t

be biased, bribery should not be accepted; everything should be written in all honesty

since every bit of information they will contribute on the article will likely affect the

decisions of medical practitioners.

VI. External Sourcing

Carol, R. T. (2014, January 22). Blondlot and N-rays. From The Skeptic's Dictionary: http://skepdic.com/blondlot.html

Spinak, E. (2014, January 16). Ethical Editing – Ghostwriting is an unhealthy practice. From SciELO in Perspective: http://blog.scielo.org/en/2014/01/16/ethical-editing-ghostwriting-is-an-unhealthy-practice/

Cadence Design Systems Inc. vs. Avant! Corporation. (2002). Trade Secrets .

Leveson, N. Medical Devices: The Therac 25. Washington: University of Washington.

Albuquerque vs. Isleta Pueblo Water Case. (2012). 10.

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chapter 7 case study: engineering ethics and principles

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