ABSTRACT
As engineers play key roles in the development, production and operation of technology, they are, at least in part, responsible for the consequences of technology. This is how both the engineers as a professional group and the public at large see it. Engineers, or at least US engineers, have often wished to see themselves as professionals, aiming at a form of professional independence. After World War II there was a growing awareness that engineers have important independent obligations to people other than their employers or clients. Whistle blowing has lost none of its actuality. A case from the US tobacco industry produced the theme for a recent movie. In Europe and Australia, the subject of engineering ethics has only received systematic attention since the mid-1990s. This is not to say that before that time engineering schools did not in their curricula address the ethical and social aspects of engineering or the responsibilities of engineers in the engineering curricula at all.
