What Is an Ethical Dilemma?

There are three conditions that must be present for a situation to be considered an ethical
dilemma. The first condition occurs in situations when an individual, called the “agent,” must
make a decision about which course of action is best. Situations that are uncomfortable but
that don’t require a choice, are not ethical dilemmas. For example, students in their internships
are required to be under the supervision of an appropriately credentialed social work field
instructor. Therefore, because there is no choice in the matter, there is no ethical violation or
breach of confidentiality when a student discusses a case with the supervisor. The second
condition for ethical dilemma is that there must be different courses of action to choose from.
Third, in an ethical dilemma, no matter what course of action is taken, some ethical principle is
compromised. In other words, there is no perfect solution.
In determining what constitutes an ethical dilemma, it is necessary to make a distinction
between ethics, values, morals, and laws and policies. Ethics are prepositional statements
(standards) that are used by members of a profession or group to determine what the right
course of action in a situation is.
It is also essential that the distinction be made between personal and professional ethics and
values.

Two Types of Dilemmas

An “absolute” or “pure” ethical dilemma only occurs when two (or more) ethical standards apply to a
situation but are in conflict with each other. For example, a social worker in a rural community with
limited mental health care services is consulted on a client with agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder
involving a fear of open and public spaces. Although this problem is outside of the clinician’s general
competence, the limited options for treatment, coupled with the client`s discomfort in being too far
from home, would likely mean the client might not receive any services if the clinician declined on the
basis of a lack of competence (Ethical Standard 1.04). Denying to see the patient then would be
potentially in conflict with our commitment to promote the well-being of clients (Ethical Standard 1.01).
This is a pure ethical dilemma because two ethical standards conflict. It can be resolved by looking at
Ethical Standard 4.01, which states that social workers should only accept employment (or in this case, a
client) on the basis of existing competence or with “the intention to acquire the necessary competence.”
The social worker can accept the case, discussing the present limits of her expertise with the client and
following through on her obligation to seek training or supervision in this area.

However, there are some complicated situations that require a decision but may also involve conflicts
between values, laws, and policies
Conclusion
When writing an ethical dilemma paper or when attempting to resolve an ethical dilemma in practice,
social workers should determine if it is an absolute or approximate dilemma; distinguish between
personal and professional dimensions; and identify the ethical, moral, legal, and values considerations in
the situation. After conducting this preliminary analysis, an ethical decision-making model can then be
appropriately applied.

INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
An engineer’s job is to solve problems in the world. I want to become a bioengineer because I would
like to help people or animals who have physical health problems, especially in the field of vision and
visual prosthetics. However, with great power comes great responsibility. There are many ethical
dilemmas that an engineer will face while searching for solutions to a problem. For example, a faulty
product could result in the death or injury of others. By not double checking the safety of a product, a
consumer may accidentally misuse the item. Engineers are supposed to solve problems, not make more
of them. By ignoring ethics, engineering can be very dangerous.

Another way that engineers will face ethical dilemmas is with bribes. A competing company may offer a
financial prize to an engineer to make a faulty product so that the company whose name will be put on
the product will look bad. It would be unethical to accept the bribe from the competing company
because it would show your dishonesty and lack of loyalty. Also, if you are caught doing this, there will
be punishment and the chances of finding a job afterward are very slim.

In order to combat engineering ethics, organizations have been created.

THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS IN MAKING UNETHICAL DECISIONS

There is a very good chance that I come across people who will not take ethics seriously in the
working world. People who only want whatever is best for themselves. If a colleague or supervisor
asked me to perform unethical actions, I would have to make a decision on whether to follow their
advice knowing what I am doing is wrong, or to ignore them and possibly report them. Many people
perform unethical actions because someone of higher power asks them to and threatens them if they
do not do it. This is a very common scenario in the real world. If I were in this position, I would not
perform the unethical action because I would not be able to live with the guild knowing what I did was
wrong. Instead, I can report my supervisor to one of the many organizations which promote whistle
blowing. Whistle blowing is “when a worker reports suspected wrongdoing at work. Officially this is
called ‘making a disclosure in the public interest”. There are laws in America which protect
whistleblowers from the company retaliating. A worker can report a company or supervisor if they
deem an action or order to be unhealthy or if it goes against their contract. The National
Whistleblowers Center is a non-profit organization which “protects employees’ lawful disclosure of
waste, fraud, and abuse”. People who plan on bringing unethical actions of a company to the public can
go to the National Whistleblowers Center to seek help and feel secure while talking about their
experiences.
 If a “shortcut” that would get my product to market sooner, or would get my research and results
noticed or published sooner has occurred to me, but could cause potential problems, I would not take
this shortcut. Visual prosthesis surgery is a very dangerous procedure and I would not take any
shortcuts when dealing with the safety of others. I believe that a human life is more important than any
kind of financial profit and would rather make no money instead of hurting someone.

CASE STUDIES RELATED TO ENGINEERNIG

CASE 16 – A BRIGHT TEAM MEMBER

If I had an outstanding team member who always had great ideas and made me and another team
member frustrated and devalued, I will tell my fellow frustrated team member that everything will be
alright. Just because we do not come up with the greatest ideas does not mean we are not contributing
members of the team. There is nothing we can do about the extremely bright team member because
she is not doing anything wrong. She is actually making our team look better and that is all that matters;
that the team succeeds in the end. If this happens, then we are doing our jobs correctly and there is
nothing to worry about. Together, we can think of other roles we can play on the team, such as a
leader, or mediator or arguments. We can be crucial parts of the team without being the most creative.
I think it would be a good idea to discuss the issue with other team members. I would have Ms. Bright in
attendance, telling her she is doing a good job and to keep it up. The best for me is to make sure the
team does not fall apart because one person is rising above the rest. It is best if the team can assign
roles for each member to make sure everything runs smoothly. Ms. Bright would be happy to hear that
she is doing a good job and everyone else will be happy that they are contributing to the team in a
positive way.

ENGINEERING CODES OF ETHICS

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS (NSPE)
The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) provides a general Code of Ethics for engineers of
every type. The very first thing on the NSPE Code of Ethics is “Hold paramount safety, health, and
welfare of the public” [10]. I find this very important because I believe that safety should come first.
The job of an engineer is to solve problems of the world and find ways to improve life. By not putting
safety first, you would be doing the exact opposite of what an engineers should do. You would only be
causing more problems if your device or creation ends up hurting one or more people. I find that a lot
of the codes and guidelines are up to the judgment of the engineer. This can be scary because one
person may deem something safe, while another engineer says it is dangerous and will cause injury. It is
hard to predict what will happen because there are too many unknown variables to account for.
Overall, the NSPE provide a good set of broad guidelines that are not specific to one kind of engineering
but covers a lot of crucial areas.

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING SOCIETY (BMES)

The Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) created a Code of Ethics which was last updated in February
of 2004. This code of ethics a lot shorter than the code of ethics created by NSPE, most likely because it
is much more specific and aimed to guide a certain group of engineers and not all of them in general.
The first thing on the BMES Code of Ethics is: Engineers shall “Use their knowledge, skills, and abilities to
enhance the safety, health, and welfare of the public”.

CONCLUSION TO ETHICAL DILEMMAS FACED BY ENGINEERS

In conclusion, ethics are a vital part to the engineering world. It is important that engineers know what
is ethically correct and incorrect because we have the power to change the future and our products can
be used by millions of people daily. I will always put safety above money because I feel that a human
life is the most valuable thing in the world. As an engineer, I want to solve problems instead of creating
more and by following a code of ethics, I can do that. Engineers are going to have to make tough
decisions multiple times throughout their career and it is better if they choose the ethically right choice.
References

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Karen Allen, Ph.D., LMSW, is an associate professor at Oakland University’s Social Work Program.

References for the dilemmas in engineering

• [1] “Mission, Vision, and Strategic Priorities.” (2014). ASME. (online article).
https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/.

• [2] Y. Xia, Q. Ren (2012). “Ethical Considerations for Volunteer Recruitment of Visual Prosthesis
Trials.” Spring Science + Media. (online article).
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6.pdf?auth66=1414392149_08c9e2efaca0121211d2c7f9fe71d1bf&ext=.pdf.

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http://web.archive.org/web/20010202155300/http:/www.cahe.org/.
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http://www.whistleblowers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=42.

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http://www.myjewishlearning.com/life/Life_Events/Death_and_Mourning/Contemporary_Issues/The_B
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• [7] “Case 19-The Animal Lab.” (2014). Stanford Ethics Case Studies in Biodesign. (online article).
http://biodesign.stanford.edu/bdn/ethicscases/18animallab.jsp.

• [8] “Case 16-A Bright Team Member.” (2014). Stanford Ethics Case Studies in Biodesign. (online
article). http://biodesign.stanford.edu/bdn/ethicscases/16brightteammember.jsp.

• [9] “Case 10-Third World Considerations.” (2014). Stanford Ethics Case Studies in Biodesign.
(online article). http://biodesign.stanford.edu/bdn/ethicscases/10thirdworld.jsp.

• [10] “NSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers.” (2014). NSPE.org. (online article).
http://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics.

• [11] “Biomedical Engineering Society Code of Ethics.” (2004). BMES.org. (online article).
http://bmes.org/files/2004%20Approved%20%20Code%20of%20Ethics(2).pdf.