Typically Ethical - Ethics in Software Engineering
18 Apr 2019
Typically Ethical
Typically, we hear about the bad ethical choices of politicians and business owners on the news and do not think twice about it. However, these ethical choices are also present in software engineering environments as well. In the context of software engineering, it is the action of committing oneself with the positive moral principles of benefiting society during the process of development and/or creation. However, the idea of ethics is very broad and general, differing between one another. Thus, in order to guide software engineers in the correct direction, ACM outlines eight principles to adhere to.
“The Code I’m Still Ashamaed of”
Reading “The Code I’m Still Ashamed of” by Bill Sourour, I was overwhelmed with the situation he faced of creating a questionarie what would lead to a perscription with side effects of severe depression and suicidal thoughts, leading to the deaths of others. Sourour then emphasizes, “As developers, we are often one of the last lines of defense against potentially dangerous and unethical practices.” Logically, Sourour was doing his job correctly and legally, building a simulating questionarie according to the client’s requirements. However, due to the oversight of ethics, the code eventually led to an unfortunate event that could have been prevented by confronting the customer’s request.
Hapless Situation
If I was in that situation, I would have questioned the customer’s intention for the code as well as brought the issue to the leaders/managers of the company. If there was more thought into the ethics while building the code, senseless injures and deaths could have been avoided. This issue is truly one could have been avoided if someone in the process was to bring more concern to the dilemma at hand. From the customer’s resquest for the questionaire, it should have sparked various ethical issues amongst the software developers as it clearly contradicts several ACM code of ethics such as the general ethical principles 1.1, 1.2, 1.3; the professional responsibilities 2.5; and professional leadership principles 3.7. By keeping others in mind, we can then become ethical creators of technology for the new generations to come.