When I think of ethics I think of decision making that is majorly impactful in a positive or negative way. The word ethic originates from Greek that means “the science of morals”. So why do software engineers have to worry about whether something is morally right or wrong? Are we not simply writing code? Well, the devices and systems that run our code can have impactful consequences if something were to happen. Think about it, a programmer had to code the safety features for the rocket that helped man get on the moon. Missle guiding systems need to be perfectly functioning otherwise they may cause friendly fire damage. The security code that we write is what separates the user’s personal information from thieves ready to use it for their own means. So, I guess software engineers DO need to think about programming ethics. Should we feel guilty if we wrote a piece of code that caused a car accident, or a patient recieved an incorrect dose of medicine from machine? If our code is bad then there definitely should be a feeling of remorse I think. However, if there were certain design implementations set by our employer/customer, then I think I would be more inclined to shift the blame to them or maybe I wouldn’t accept their request at all. Could you knowingly accept a job that would end up causing people harm?
You can read Bill’s story here, but basically he was hired to code a simple quiz for a pharmaceutical company. However something was off. When he was finished with his website his manager tried it out and pointed out that almost all the answers to the quiz direct to the company’s drug as the solution. Of course being the one that coded the quiz he knew this was what the client wanted. Shortly after he saw a news report of a girl who killed herself after taking that same pharmaceutical company’s drug. He did not realize the main side effects of the drug that he was helping push were severe depression and suicidal thoughts. He felt bad that he wrote a piece of code that was involved in this incident and soon resigned.
Given the opportunity to look over at what happened, one thing I would have done if I was in his position would have been to ask the client if I could have more information about the drug. It should be standard to give warnings on drugs that can cause potential side effects. If the client warned customers about the risk of depression and suicidal thoughts then I’m sure they could have avoided a lot of legal actions, but the downside would be that their drug wouldn’t sell as much, which was the point of the quiz. If the client insisted they keep information about their drug to a minimum then that’s probably a sign that you should refuse their job.
So was what Bill did afterwards justified? Probably. I’m sure I would leave after a company gets caught under fire about a drug causing people to kill themselves without a proper warning. And Bill did a lot of freelance work throughout his youth so I’m sure he would be fine.