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

8.4 Regulative frameworks
Conclusions of the empirical study
I address working hypothesis 2b in this section. Grunwald has proposed a
number of requirements that a regulative framework must meet before
engineers can be justified in working within the framework without further
ethical reflection. Such a normative framework can thus be seen as providing the
limits within which engineers can do their work. A normative framework is
politically and socially sanctioned, and should, according to Grunwald, be
pragmatically complete, locally consistent, unambiguous, accepted and observed.
I have already established whether the regulative frameworks could be
considered normative frameworks in the last sections of the empirical chapters. I
concluded that, in the case-studies used for this research, Grunwald’s
requirements were only partly met. A list of ethical issues related to problems
with the regulative frameworks, based on Grunwald’s requirements is given in
table 8.5.
Table 8.5: Ethical issues and problems with the regulative framework.
Product Ethical issues questions Kind of issues Relation with problems of the
and problems
regulative framework
Piping Assumption: designing Operationalisation I Regulative framework
and by legislation and codes of requirements available but it is not accepted
Equip- leads to safe and good
by some groups for example
ment installations.
installations neighbours and
environmental groups.
Which code will be used Operationalisation I Regulative framework
in this design process to
make a good and safe
design?
of requirements pragmatically incomplete.
What load and accident Operationalisation Regulative framework
scenarios need to be
accounted for?
II of safety pragmatically incomplete.
Deviation from code Operationalisation I Regulative framework allows
allowed?
of requirements for deviation, ambiguous
regulative framework.
Inconsistencies between
customer requirements,
codes and standards.
Making trade-offs Some inconsistency in
regulative framework, or
inconsistencies between
regulative framework and
customer requirements.
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