{"id":1638,"date":"2008-09-15T17:28:44","date_gmt":"2008-09-15T21:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=1638"},"modified":"2019-08-06T16:43:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T20:43:54","slug":"question-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/09\/question-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"A Question of Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Illustration<\/a>
Illustration by Michael Gibbs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As technological advances lead to new materials, methods, and opportunities, Johns Hopkins engineers find themselves grappling with limitless possibilities and unexpected challenges.<\/em><\/p>\n

For thousands suffering from Parkinson\u2019s disease, an advance in biomedical engineering known as deep brain stimulation appears to be a godsend. The procedure uses an electrode inserted into the brain to help calm Parkinson\u2019s often debilitating tremors. \u201cThere are striking images of people who\u2019ve received the procedure,\u201d says Murray Sachs, recently retired director of Biomedical Engineering. \u201cThe tremor goes away like that ,\u201d he says, snapping his fingers.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also, potentially, something far less beneficial. Deep brain stimulation works by exciting the dopanergic regions of the basal ganglia, where neurons are dying. \u201cIf you can stimulate the dopanergic region, you can stimulate anything ,\u201d explains Sachs. \u201cWhat if it causes psychological changes? What if it causes learning problems? At what point do you pull the stimulation?\u201d These aren\u2019t just hypothetical questions for Sachs. He himself suffers from Parkinson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The ability to control a person\u2019s behavior via an electrode could be both a wonderful cure and a potentially horrible crime, he points out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a problem,\u201d Sachs says. \u201cIt\u2019s not in the future. It\u2019s right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

WE LIVE IN AN AGE when technological advances occur with lightning swiftness. But there\u2019s a crucial element over which technological strides have sometimes leapfrogged. Though A Question of Ethics it\u2019s not as obviously critical to engineers as stress tolerances or reactive properties, the role of ethics\u2014the analysis of right and wrong and the gray area in between\u2014is just as vital.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngineers are supposed to be building things to make life better,\u201d notes Allan Bjerkaas, associate dean for Engineering and Applied Science Programs for Professionals (EPP). \u201cIn our society now, where we are building things that could have unexpected impacts on our lives, we need to think clearly about how to do that safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethical dilemmas are hardly new to the field of engineering. One need only look back to the waning years of World War II, when a small group of engineers found themselves with an ethical question of unparalleled import: \u201cShould we build and detonate an atomic bomb?\u201d That fateful technological leap\u2014in which the science predicted and developed by physicists was put into real-world practice marked the beginning of the modern era of engineering ethics. \u201cThere is a shadow over engineers that says, \u2018You don\u2019t pay enough attention to social and moral issues,\u2019\u201d says Sachs. \u201cFor 16 years, my colleague Eric Young and I had Friday dinners with our wives and four children. When those children were younger, most of the dinners would be spent with them accusing us of being perpetuators of the atomic bomb.\u201d He pauses, then adds, \u201cInterestingly, two of those kids ended up as scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the years since the advent of the atomic bomb, ethical oversights within engineering\u2014 whether deliberate, or compounded by negligence and lack of communication\u2014have proved fatal, often casting a pall on the profession\u2019s public image that has taken years to restore. The Ford Pinto\u2019s fiery design flaw of the 1970s. The 1981 Kansas City Hyatt\/ Regency walkway failure. The 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion. The 2007 Interstate 35 bridge collapse in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Disasters like these still weigh heavily on the minds and thoughts of engineers today. They know that, ultimately, someone did something wrong that led to these mistakes, whether it was ignoring warnings, performing substandard work, or bowing to corporate financial pressures. \u201cWhen Ford manufactured the Pinto, knowing that the gas tank could rupture and explode at a low-speed impact, the public might have asked why the engineers allowed this to happen,\u201d says Glenn Rahmoeller, an engineer who has taught ethics for a decade (including four years at Hopkins) and who currently lectures in the EPP program. \u201cWhen a bridge falls down, society loses confi – dence in [engineers]. People ask, \u2018How could this happen?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s upped the ante today is the increased pace of technological advances. \u201cAs engineers advance into unprecedented territory, we face increasing ethical dilemmas,\u201d says Whiting School dean Nick Jones. In fields like biomechanical engineering, nanobiotechnology, and information technology, new materials and modes of data interaction that didn\u2019t exist even a decade ago are being created and implemented with breathtaking speed.<\/p>\n

In this ever-shifting landscape, when there\u2019s often no telling where innovations will lead, the need to consider ethics has never been greater for engineers, notes James G. Hodge Jr., of the Center for Law and the Public\u2019s Health, a collaborative center at both Johns Hopkins and Georgetown universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always room for technology to surpass what we perceive as possible,\u201d he says. \u201cLetting technology speed ahead of the ability to assess impacts-that can be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the fields in which safety is an ever-present and growing concern is nanobiotechnology\u2014a rapidly emerging discipline that unites biotechnology with nanotechnology. Researchers already use mate – rials at the nano scale (from 100 nanometers down to the level of individual atoms) in everything from sunscreen to water filtration systems to stain-resistant slacks. Creating material at that small a scale presents both enormous opportunities and innumerable questions, notes Marc Donohue, vice dean for research.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, nano is important not because it is smaller but because, in the nano region, fundamental physical properties are different,\u201d Donohue notes. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how to predict what they are. The biological properties are different too. Technology has gone beyond our scientific understanding of the implications of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are developing new technologies, it\u2019s critical that we are also looking at the societal impact at the same time they are being developing\u2014not after they have been released.\u201d Peter Searson<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an interesting duality in this area,\u201d says Peter Searson, the Joseph R. and Lynn C. Reynolds Professor. \u201cWe need to be cognizant of nanoscience\u2019s potential public health issues but the flipside is that the science and tools that come out of this endeavor have beneficial impact and can solve problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another issue that compounds the difficulty of nanobiotechnology research is its broad impact across the physical spectrum. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly multidisciplinary problem,\u201d says Searson, director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology, which brings together some 162 faculty, staff, and researchers from Engineering, Public Health, Medicine, Arts and Sciences, and the Applied Physics Laboratory. \u201cIt\u2019s the complexity of the problem now that distinguishes it. If you want to understand how a nanoparticle will interact with a cell, you need to understand the cell. There\u2019s the composition of the particle, the shape of the particle, its size. If we keep going, there are the various interac – tions we need to consider: What does the cell see as it comes into contact with the nanoparticle? It will respond in different ways to different biochemical cues. It requires scientists and engineers with very diverse backgrounds to address these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

To illustrate Searson\u2019s point, consider the current example of sunscreens that use titanium dioxide nanoparticles to make the lotion more effective at filtering out harmful ultraviolet rays. So far, so good.<\/p>\n

But when the person wearing that sun screen takes a shower, those nanoparticles are washed off the skin and into the public sewer system. At that point, the civil engineers working at the water treatment plant downstream are now going to be handling the nanoparticles: They need to know that they are coming, understand the science and policy issues associated with them, and prepare the water system. How will the particles affect the environment? The material has jumped into a discipline that isn\u2019t immediately obvious, and that\u2019s part of the challenge of nanobiotechnology.<\/p>\n

This complexity is a challenge both in the lab and in the real world because the public, too, has to be educated about it. \u201cThis isn\u2019t something a research group can work on for six months and come up with all the answers,\u201d Searson continues. \u201cThere\u2019s an almost infinite number of combinations. We have a huge matrix and a clamor for one single answer. We need to make the public realize this is a very complex subject. We have to find more effective ways of conveying that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exponential increase in the amount of\u2014and access to\u2014information that the Internet gives society has presented computer and software engineers with their own unique set of challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been quoted as saying, \u2018When the Internet was created, almost everybody naively assumed that people are going to play fair,\u2019\u201d says Gerry Masson, director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute (JHUISI).<\/p>\n

For Masson and his colleagues their nemeses are not physical, like rust, water, or weight: The enemies they are fighting are other human beings, malevolently intent on bypassing securi – ty measures and stealing personal data and information. \u201cAnything as complicated as the Internet has major flaws in it, and those flaws can be exploited,\u201d Masson says. \u201cA lot of really great software can be used as a weapon. The designers never thought of that possibility.<\/p>\n\"Question<\/a>\n

\u201cThe information security area is interesting,\u201d he continues. \u201cThere\u2019s a neat aspect, which is that you have to tell everybody what you\u2019re doing. And you almost have to invite people to see if they can come up with a way to get in.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if they do? JHUISI is working on developing answers to that ethical question as well. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the ethics of discovering flaws and what you do with that information,\u201d Masson says. \u201cLet\u2019s say I discover that my smart key [a purely electronic key] can be used to get into any Toyota Prius. Do I tell Toyota? Do I make this info known?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer, according to JHUISI, is yes. Take two recent examples of software issues made public by JHUISI faculty. In what may be their most celebrated case, Computer Science faculty member Avi Rubin and other researchers at Independent Security Evaluators (a private company founded by Rubin) were the first to find a way to hack into Apple\u2019s popular new iPhone, allowing outside entities to take control of the device. The researchers immediately alerted Apple about the vulnerability, and even created a software patch that could solve the problem that they were ready to hand over to the company. Rubin and his colleagues also gained national attention after they revealed serious security flaws and lapses in electronic voting machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you find a vulnerability, it\u2019s kind of na\u00efve to think that someone else won\u2019t discover it as well. If you think you\u2019re the only person who finds a flaw, that\u2019s arrogant,\u201d says Masson. \u201cWhat you have an obligation to do is to identify the proper channels and let the information be known.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is engineering education keeping up with the need to equip a new generation of engineers with an ethics-focused approach to their work and research?<\/p>\n

\u201cThree or four years ago, the answer [for BME graduate students] was absolutely not,\u201d says Murray Sachs. \u201cWe did a terrible job for many years. We used to have a graduate student retreat once a year, at a place chosen by the students.\u201d For about a day, the students would break into groups and discuss examples of ethical challenges. And that was it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, we, as a department, mandated to teach ethics,\u201d he says. \u201cThe NIH also mandated it.\u201d Now, the topic of ethics is infused into courses within each department, and plans are being developed to increase courses available to students going into fields in which ethics will play a guiding role. More lectures are devoted to getting engineers to consider the impact of their work, and to talk about concerns and questions. Sachs himself has plans to debut a course next spring for graduate students; it will take place off campus, in a relaxed environment aimed at getting students to open up, he says.<\/p>\n

In the lab, Hopkins Engineering faculty have already started to increase interdisciplinary collaboration in hopes of increasing the quality of research while minimizing unforeseen consequences (like those raised by Searson mentioned in the example of nanoparticles in sunscreen).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen engineers come up with a new technology, they ought to talk to people in other disciplines early on,\u201d says Rahmoeller. \u201cTalk to sociologists and experts from the scientific disciplines that will use the technology. Study the long-term effects instead of waiting for a problem to occur many years down the road. In the case of nanotechnology, for example, some 95 percent of the research budget is spent on studying the potential benefits and only about 5 percent on the potential harm to individuals and society. There should be a greater balance in the funding of this research.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are developing new technologies,\u201d agrees Searson, \u201cit\u2019s critical that we are also looking at the societal impact at the same time they are being developing\u2014not after they have been released.\u201d<\/p>\n

For five years, Hodge has been teaching ethics to engineering and information technology undergraduate and graduate students at Hopkins. \u201cI find that when I get them out of their element, this is a tough class for them,\u201d he says. \u201cThe class requires them to step away from their world of programming and design, and be placed in a world that is focused on people who are affected by their programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mentality is not to limit technology for the sake of limitation,\u201d says Hodge. \u201cThat\u2019s not realistic. It\u2019s about smart use. It\u2019s about anticipating potential impacts. Technological innovations can lead to tremendous health benefits. But let\u2019s not create unintended, negative public health or health consequences along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s helpful for an engineer to sleep at night if they know the overall picture, know what\u2019s out there,\u201d Bjerkaas adds. \u201cAnd to know what they don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As technological advances lead to new materials, methods, and opportunities, Johns Hopkins engineers find themselves grappling with limitless possibilities and unexpected challenges. For thousands suffering from Parkinson\u2019s disease, an advance in biomedical engineering known as deep brain stimulation appears to be a godsend. 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