Ethical issues in engineering design - 3TU.Centre for Ethics and ...

Conclusions of the empirical study
to ask advice from a certifying organisation. Thus in normal designs there were
fewer operationalisations made from scratch. The availability of a regulative
framework did not mean that all of the ethical issues could be decided on using
such a framework. Some subjects were not covered by the regulative framework.
For example, in the bridge case the prevention of misuse of the bridge was not
part of the regulative framework, while in the piping and equipment case the
regulative framework did not provide rules for establishing load and accident
scenarios. The Notified Body could give advice on load and accident scenarios
but it was not allowed to check accident scenarios. When a regulative framework
did not give guidance and rules on a subject the engineers fell back to relying on
company rules, their own design experience or seeking advice from an
organization that had a lot of experience with the subject. So in the presented
cases the regulative framework was complemented with complying to company
rules, using design experience and seeking expert advice.
Only a few references were made to regulative frameworks or ideas from the
regulative framework were rejected in the radical design cases. In these cases the
approaches for dealing with ethical issues were to rely on personal or design
experience and/or to discuss such issues with the customer.
The regulative framework pertaining to car safety was rejected in the
DutchEVO lightweight car case and in the trailer case the regulative framework
concerning trucks and trailers was only used to obtain maximum dimensions,
mass and pneumatic springs. Operationalisations of ethical issues were made
based on internal norms existing in the company designing the trailer. These
internal norms were also of help in deciding what trade-offs were deemed
acceptable by the design team. The internal norms consisted of ideas, rules and
guidelines as to what a good design is and how a design should be made. Such
internal norms are shared by a design team, but can also be shared by (the
department of) an organisation in which the design team works. In the radical
design cases, internal norms were developed based on design experience,
educational background and personal experience. In addition to these internal
norms, customer norms can be used in operationalisations and in the making of
trade-offs.
In the trailer case, a lot of discussions was devoted to what load scenarios
should be used to test the reliability of the trailer. These load scenarios were part
of the operationalisation of the reliability of the trailer, and as indicated in
chapter 7, safety was equated with reliability. The department of the engineering
company in which the engineers worked specialised in lightweight composite
design. Internal norms and ideas on good design practice existed within the
department and were based upon the department’s design experience with
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