2. A s H U MA N ,
Engineers have fundamental
rights to live and freely pursue
their legitimate interest, which
implies, for example , rights not
to be unfairly discriminated
against on the basis of SEX,
RACE, or AGE
3. A s E mp l o y e e s ,
Engineers have special
rights, including right to receive
one’s salary in return for performing
one’s duties and the right to engage
in the non work political activities of
one’s choosing without reprisal or
coercion from employers.
4. As
Pr of e s s i ona l s ,
Engineers have special rights that
arise from their professional role
and obligations it involves. We
begin with professional rights
, most of which can be viewed as
aspects of fundamental right of
professional conscience.
5. Pr o f e s s i o n a l
Ri g h t s
Three professional rights have special importance:
(1) the basic right of professional
conscience,
(2) the right of conscientious refusal,
and
(3) the right of professional recognition.
6. 1. r i g h t o f p r o f e s s i o n a l
c ons c i e nc e
Is the moral right to exercise professional judgment for
pursuing professional responsibilities
Pursuing those responsibilities involves exercising both
technical judgment and reasoned moral
convictions
This right has limits, of course must be balanced
against responsibilities to employers and to
colleagues .
7. 2.R i g h t o f Co n s c i e n c e
Re f u s a l
The right of conscientious refusal is the right to refuse to engaged
in unethical behavior and to refuse to do so solely because one
views it as unethical.
There are two situations to be considered:
1. Where there is widely shared agreement in the profession as to
whether an act is unethical and
2. Where there is room for this agreement among reasonable
people over whether an act is unethical.
8. 3. R i g h t t o r e c ogni t i on
Engineers have a right to professional recognition for their work
and accomplishments. Part of this involves fair monetary remuneration
and part non-monetary forms of recognition. The right to recognition, and
especially fair remuneration, may seem to be purely a matter of self interest
rather than morality, but it is both without fair remuneration, engineers
cannot concentrate their energies where they properly belong.
But the right professional recognition is not sufficiently precise to pinpoint
just what are reasonable salary is or what a fair remuneration for patent
discoveries such detailed matters must be work out cooperatively between
employers and employees.
9. E mp l o y e e s r i g h t s
Employee rights are any rights, moral or legal, that involve the status of being
unemployed. They overlap with some professional rights.
1. Privacy
The right to pursue outside activities can be thought of as a right to personal
privacy in the sense that it means the right to have a private life off the job.
We mean the right to control the access to and the used of information about
oneself.
2. Equal opportunity: NONDISCRIMINATION
3. Equal Opportunity: SEXUAL HARRASMENT
4. Equal Opportunity: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
10. WH I S T L E B L O WI N G
A host of issues are involved. When is whistle blowing
morally permissible? Is it ever morally obligatory, or
beyond the call of duty? To what extent, if any, do
engineers have the right to whistle blow, and when is
doing so immoral and imprudent? When is whistle
blowing an act of disloyalty to an organization.
11. Wh i s t l e b l o w i n g :
De f i n i t i o n
Whistle blowing occurs when an employee or
former employee conveys information about a
significant moral problem to someone in a position
to take action on the problem and does so outside
approve organizational channels(or against strong
pressure).
