The Right way or Wrong way
02 May 2017
Ethics Dilemma
Philosophy 101 from Honolulu Community College was my first and only college course on the topic of Ethics. I learned a lot about myself and my own moral beliefs in this class. I found out that my own beliefs on various scenarios often differ from others. We often had debates in class about what each of us believed to moral.
In my Philosophy class, we were taught Kant’s ethical theory and how it is applied it to different scenarios. Kant’s ethical theory had three steps to determine if the action is moral. The first step was the Categorical Imperative. We would ask ourselves what was the act in question then we would create a universal and public law that is willed by the action. If this law could be carried out, it would pass the first step. The second step was the Rule of Reversibility. If you would be willing to be treated the way your rule treats everyone it affects, it would pass the second step. The last step is the Practical Imperative. In the act in question, if anyone is being used simply as a means, the act would fail the last step. If the act passed all three steps, the act would be moral according to Kantian Ethical Theory. There were many scenarios that were brought up which I believed were moral that failed Kant’s ethical theory and vice versa.
I believe we have both a professional and personal ethical obligation to society as software engineers. After reading both ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, one thing stuck in my mind. That one thing was the word ‘Integrity’. As a Operations Manager at FedEx, I learned integrity is one of the most important principles in business and in life. I have seen so many peoples’ careers end abruptly, because their integrity was questioned.
In ‘The Code I’m Still Ashamed of’ article, Bill Sourour created a general information website. It included a quiz for patients to take that would recommend a type of drug based on their responses. After he coded up the quiz, Bill and his account manager discovered that no matter what responses were made, the quiz would always recommend the best treatment as the client’s medication. I believe that the client in the article used deception to promote their medication. In Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, I believe this violates Principle 1.06. We should be fair and avoid deception in all statements. I also feel Bill had obligation to address this with the client before the final website was handed over, because he also noticed and was disturbed by the deception in the quiz. If I were in Bill’s shoes, I probably would have done the same at age 21. Now that I am older and hopefully wiser, I would do things differently if the same situation presented itself today. I would question the client’s intentions. Being able respect myself is very important to me.
My morals and beliefs have changed over the years as I have become more older. There will always be unanticipated consequences for our own actions, but I feel if we do our best to follow both ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice as well as own beliefs, everyone will benefit.