The ASME Code Of Ethics

When looking at the ASME code of ethics we can see that ethical theories are being used. An argument can be made that two out of the three ethical theories are being used. The first one is utilitarianism which is number 5 on the fundamental canons. Which says that “Engineers shall respect the proprietary information and intellectual property rights of others, including charitable organizations and professional societies in the engineering field” (ASME Code of Ethics). This is utilitarianism because it serves as a protection from duplicating any innovations from other people in the profession. The next one is virtue ethics, which is number 8 on the fundamental canons. This says that “Engineers shall consider environmental impact and sustainable

By having rule utilitarianism, it possesses more appeal, by focusing on moral rightness. This is because “instead of evaluating specific actions, decision-makers should act in accord with rules which, when widely followed, lead to an overall increase in utility” (Smith and Burgess, pg. 25). The reason why this leads to greater overall utility is because people can often make bad judgement. By having specific rules, it maximizes the effort an engineer can give by decreasing the ways in which engineers may endanger themselves and others. When looking at the ASME code of ethics now, all of the fundamental canons are sets of rules that the engineer must follow. With having rule-utilitarianism has the sole basis, we would just have to work out which rules creates the most happiness for engineers as a whole, and they will likely follow. With a utilitarianism approach, “engineers can focus on promoting the greatest good for the greatest number of people” (Smith and Burgess, pg. 24). This is important because by having a rule utilitarianism, moral rightness would not depend on a particular act at the moment. Instead, it would depend on the rule and how engineers would abide by it. By giving engineers a set of rules to follow, each engineer can use past experience and find different solutions to similar problems under these rules. This gives engineers a better understand of what they can and can’t do. Rule utilitarianism is an important theory for engineers because by having rules to guide them on what to do, they can’t do something that is unethical and can hurt the people they want to promote the greatest good for. One thing rule utilitarianism does is it also suggests a “broader approach to moral problems, which lead to a consistency of actions across situations” (Smith and