3.2 Writing and analyzing ethics cases in business and research

Outline of contents of featured links in online ethics, uprm-ce-pro, computing cases, and connexions

• Computing Cases has experimented with a method for displaying a case that takes advantage of online features such as hyperlinking. The three cases featured (Therac-25, Hughes Aircraft, and Machado) provide excellent templates for developing your own case. They, typically, provide an abstract, case narrative, socio-technical system analysis, supporting document, perspective pieces, and short ethical discussions. The focus is on computer ethics.
• Online Ethics provides a wide variety of cases. Of special interest are the cases developed by graduate students that reflect their experiences in research ethics. These cases normally provide the case narrative, a commentary written by the graduate student who is the author of the case, and a commentary by one or more of the ethicists participating in the graduate research ethics workshop held through the auspices of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.
• Adopt an orphan. The University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez Center for Ethics in the Professions has a number of case drafts displayed at its website. These come from faculty development workshops or from students who have developed cases in ethics workshops and classes. These provide only the bare narrative. Your group may choose to adopt an orphan by taking one of these narrratives and building upon it through a socio-technical analysis or through links to supporting information online. These cases represent issues vital to students and instructors in business, science, and engineering. Developing one into a full blown case study would represent an excellent investment of your time.
• The National Society of Professional Engineers publishes cases that have been brought to and discussed by its Board of Ethical Review. The NSPE BER cases go all the way back to the 1960's and provide invaluable insights into how engineers interpret and use their codes of ethics. Each case has a summary, a question to be answered by the BER's deliberations, a list of relevant code provisions, a discussion of the case in terms of these provisions and a concluding decision. Occasionally, the BER does not reach complete agreement on cases and publishes a minority decision. Your group could adopt a BER case to this assignment by completing its research, identifying key decision points, and providing an analysis of the case's underlying socio-technical system.
• Finally, two Connexions modules devoted to the Biomatrix and Toysmart cases provides tables and templates to help you along on the process of analyzing your case. They set forth exercises and tables designed to help you work through the four stages of problem-solving based on an analogy between ethics and design problems. These are (1) problem specification, (2) solution generation, (3) solution testing, and (4) solution implementation.