As an engineer, you have a duty to maximise the public good and minimise both actual and potential adverse effects for your own and succeeding generations. Should you break the law to uphold this principle?
As an engineer, you have a duty to This is the dilemma presented in our Engineering Ethics Toolkit case study Engineers and Public Protest.
The engineer in this case has to weigh personal values against professional codes of conduct when acting in the wake of the climate crisis. This case study allows students to explore motivations and justifications for courses of action that could be considered morally right but legally wrong.
We’ve provided this, and other case studies, for you to use and adapt in your teaching. If you’re new to ethics, we have a growing library of guidance articles available to support you, and an Ethics Explorer to get you started.
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