ASME requires ethical practice by each of its members which I believe is a very important issue. I am currently not an ASME member, but I believe that any engineer should follow some sort of ethical principals in the career and their life. The first principal states "Engineers uphold and advance the integrity, honor and dignity of the engineering profession by using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of human welfare." I interpret this as say that you should not purposely design anything that will cause any harm to humans. This could be argued about due to that fact that the government uses lot of engineers to develop new weapons for the protection of our country. These weapons are used to cause harm against our enemies. Where do you draw the line then? I think that it falls into your own hands to uphold this principal to the extent that you feel is honorable.
Ethical Society of St. Louis Building Front View
Engineering Department employees, 1962
Engineering SignThe second principal states "being honest and impartial, and serving with fidelity the public, their employers and clients." Once again, this could be applied to your everyday life. The world would become a better place if everyone would consider this statement during everyday activities. You look at companies like Enron who did not follow these principals and look at the amount of people's lives that were destroyed due to a few people being dishonest in order to benefit themselves. The third principal states "striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering profession." This principal I believe is a very important one for all engineers to follow. If everyone is willing to help out each other than our profession will continue to grow and do better things. Most of the Canons can be applied to every day life situations as well. One of...