Review Questions

1. What is professional ethics?

Professional ethics is one of the three main perspectives through which computer ethics issues can be identified and analyzed. It is a field of applied ethics concerned with moral isses that affect computer professionals. It was also described as the principal perspective through which ethical issues involving the computing field should be examined.

2. Who is a computer professional?

A computer professional is anyone employed in the computer, information technology, or information/communications fields. It can also include faculty and instructors who teach in computer science and information management departments in universities as well as industry setting.

3. Do computer professionals have special moral responsibilities that ordinary computer users do not have? If so, what are some of those special responsibilities?

Computer professionals have similar moral responsibilities as other professionals however, having the broad capacity to do good or cause harm to the public considering the wide spread of information technology, they should be more involved with what they are developing in order to differentiate factors that might cause harm to the society.

4. Why is it useful to limit our discussion of moral issues affecting computer professionals to issues affecting software engineers and engineering teams, computer science instructors, and IT support professionals, as opposed to professionals such as lawyers and accountants who also use computers and who may work for computer corporations?

It is useful to limit the discussion of moral issues affecting computer professionals because narrowing and detailing the subject down will result to a more targeted approach to analysis.

5. How do Gottenbarn, Miller, and Rogerson propose that we define the profession of software engineering? Who is included in the software engineering team?

They suggest that a software engineering team can be thought as to those who contribute by direct participation to “analysis, specification, design, development, certification, maintenance, and testing of software systems.” Computer professionals include software engineers and software engineering teams, as well as computer science instructors in colleges, universities, and industry settings who are responsible for educating and training the members of software engineering teams. IT professionals in end-user support roles are also included but not those professionals who are employed in computer companies.

6. What are the professional codes of ethics and what functions do these codes serve?

Professional codes of ethics are often designed to motivate members of an association to behave in certain ways. They also provide helpful guidance and advice for individual members when they confront situations that are morally complex. Codes educate by informing the members of a profession about their specific grounds for punishing members. The four functions of these codes are inspiring members, guiding them, educating and disciplining them as well.

7. List some of the benefits of professional codes of ethics. Describe some of the criticisms of these professional codes.

·         Codes inspire the members of a profession to behave ethically

·         Codes guide the members of a profession in ethical choices

·         Codes educate the members of a profession about their professional obligations

·         Codes discipline members when they violate one or more of the code’s directives

·         Codes inform the public about the nature and roles of the profession.

8. Why does John Ladd believe that professional codes of ethics rest on a series of errors that are both intellectual and moral? Describe the argument he uses to support his position.

Ladd notes that ethics is basically an “open ended, reflective, and critical intellectual activity” because the directives in a code conflict with one another. Ladd also mentioned that the codes cause confusions with respect to responsibilities to individual professionals and which responsibilities apply to profession itself. Lastly, Ladd believes that attaching disciplinary procedures and sanctions to codes effectively turns them into legal rules or authoritative rules of conduct rather than ethical rules. He argues that the role of ethics is to appraise, criticize and even defend the principles, rules, and regulations, but it is not to dictate or to punish. When individuals are compelled to obey directives, they are deprived of their autonomy which is their ability to choose.

9. Explain Don Gottenbarn’s three-fold distinction: code of ethics, codes of conduct, and codes of practice. Do Gottenbarn’s distinctions help to eliminate any of the criticisms that have been raised against professional codes?

Gottenbarn describes codes of ethics as aspirational because they often serve as mission statements for the profession and can thus provide vision and objectives. Codes of conduct address the professional and the professional’s attitude and behavior. Codes of practice relate to operational activities within a profession.

10. How does the IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice (SECEPP) improve on earlier professional codes?

Most codes provide no mechanism for choosing between principles when two or more of them conflict. The hierarchy of principles enables engineers to prioritize their roles and responsibilities and to determine which ones are overriding when two or more conflict.

11. Do computer professionals have a presumed, or prima facie, obligation of loyalty to their employees? Explain.

Yes, they do and it is the obligation of loyalty in employment contexts. Engineers believed that they had a basic obligation to be loyal to institutional authority.

12. Describe the arguments by Ronald Duska and John Ladd regarding employee loyalty.

Duska argues that in employment contexts, the question of loyalty arises only in special relationships in which parties are pursuing their self-interests, the notion of loyalty their self-interest, the notion of loyalty does not apply. Duska believes that employer-employee relationships conclude that employees do not necessarily have an obligation of loyalty to their corporate employers. Ladd also believes that for corporations, loyalty can only be in one direction. He argues that a corporation cannot be loyal to the corporation, because the corporation’s goals must be competitively linked to the benefits employees bring to the corporation.

13. What exactly is whistle-blowing? According to Michael Martin, what are the three general approaches that have been taken in the analysis of whistle-blowing cases?

It means getting the public’s attention. The three general approaches are: condemned as an action taken by disloyal trouble makers who rat on their companies and undermine teamwork based on the hierarchy of authority within the corporation; regarded as a tragedy to be avoided; affirmed unequivocally as an obligation that is paramount in certain circumstances where it overrides all other considerations, whatever the sacrifice involved in meeting it.

14. Describe Richard De George’s criteria for determining when one is required to blow the whistle as opposed to when one is permitted to do so. Are De George’s criteria useful in making his distinction? Explain.

De George believes that engineers and other workers are permitted to go public with information about the safety of a product of the following conditions are met:

·         The harm that will be done by the product to the public is serious and considerable.

·         The engineers have made their concerns known to their superiors.

·         The engineers have received no satisfaction from their immediate supervisors, and they have exhausted the channels available within the corporation, including going to the board of directors.

15. In which ways do Gene James and Kenneth Alpern disagree with De George’s model for whistle-blowing?

Alpern argues that De George’s model lets engineers off too easily from their obligation to blow the whistle. He believes that engineers must be willing to make greater sacrifices than others because engineers are in a greater position to do certain kinds of social harm.

16. Describe John Ladd’s argument in defense of De George’s position on whistle-blowing.

He believes that requiring engineers to blow the whistle in nonextraordinary cases can be undesirable from an ethical point of view because it demands that these individuals be moral heroes. He agrees that engineers should not have to be heroes or saints.

17. Why does Helen Nissenbaum believe that the notion of accountability has been “systematically undermined in the computer age”? How does she distinguish between accountability and responsibility?

Nissenbaum believes that the notion of accountability has been “systematically undermined” in the computer era, despite the fact that we are increasingly dependent on safety-critical and life-critical systems controlled by computers. She argues that a major barrier to attributing accountability to the developers of safety critical-software is the problem of many hands.

18. What does Nissenbaum mean by “the problem of many hands” in a computing context?

It is likely that no single individual grasps all of the code used in developing a particular safety-critical system. It became difficult to determine who is accountable whenever one of these safety-critical systems results in personal injury or harm to individuals.

19. Why does Nissenbaum believe that it is important to distinguish between moral accountability and legal liability?

It is important to keep accountability distinct from liability to compensate. She believes that liability offers a partial solution to problems resulting to computer malfunctions because at least it addresses the needs of the victims however; she also said that accepting liability as a substitute for accountability can further obscure the process of determining who is accountable for computer malfunctions.

20. According to Don Gottenbarn, what is required for a model of risk analysis to be adequate in the software development process for safety-critical systems?

The software development life cycle should be considered.

Discussion Questions

1. Personally, having a code will truly cause confusion to software engineers so I wouldn’t really take one if it will risk my freedom for criticism and judgment.
2. No I don’t because providing full descriptions and details for computer ethics will seem too predetermined for a field where in creativity and risks should be a factor.
3. I’ll definitely take the project because the circumstance demands it.
4. In this situation where in the bugs present in our system will cause major harm to our management, of course, I will whistle-blow to save the company.
5. It will only seem as though whistle-blowing, needed or not, will not be served well by the computer professionals considering the employment implications.