Discussion 350words

Ethics and Professionalism in CS E T H I C A L D I L E M M A S

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Codes of Ethics Why? ◦ The standards that a group must adhere to.

Codes of ethics ◦ A set of principles that influence judgment of actions ◦ Public. For the professionals in the domain.

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Codes of Conduct Codes of conduct ◦ A set of guidelines that influence employee’s actions. ◦ Usually organizational wide

Do we need them in every profession ◦ Can we have a universal code of conduct for all professions? ◦ Relativism?

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Ethics VS. Conduct

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Codes of Ethics Codes of Conduct Nature General Specific Scope Wide Narrow Governs Judging decisions Actions Length Short Relatively long Availability Public Employees only Focus Values and principles Rules and procedures

Four types of codes Professional code ◦ Profession’s codes of ethics

Personal code ◦ Your own ethical framework

Institutional code ◦ Your entity’s codes of conduct

Community code ◦ The social acceptable norms in the

work’s environment

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Which one to follow!!

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A Real Case An ethical dilemma can occur if there is any contradiction between any of the four codes. ◦ The case of euthanasia or PAD

Dr. Kevorkian (Dr. death) ◦ Helps people to kill themselves started in 1990. ◦ Killed about 130 people ◦ Against the Hippocratic oath? ◦ Against Michigan's law ◦ 1994 supreme court

◦ Not against Oregon’s law ◦ Where he assisted his first patient

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Whistle Blowing The act of seeking public attention ◦ Internal ◦ External

Report if not directly involved?

Whistle blowers usually suffer ◦ Retaliatory acts

Anonymous? ◦ How to support your claims?

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Whistle Blowing (2) How to be anonymous? ◦ Anonymous letters? ◦ Talking to the media (hide your identity) ◦ Remailer software? ◦ Authorities may force the server

administrator to reveal your identity.

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Whistle Blowing

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、

Writing ◦ Write about ONE of the following ◦ A situation when you encountered an ethical dilemma. How did you resolve it? ◦ A situation when you was (or wished to be) a whistle blower. What were the repercussions.

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