Earlier this year, as reported in this New York Times piece, the American Institute of Architects denied a petition that would have rebuked individuals involved in the designing of solitary-confinement and death chamber facilities. The story – and issue at large – highlights relevant considerations for engineers and areas for revision in their respective codes of ethics. Do you have thoughts on the role engineers play in designing prison facilities? Is there space in current codes of ethics for revisions to maintain more consistency between the codes and present practices?
More reading on the AIA debate can be found here. The American Medical Association’s revisions, which relates to this issue obliquely by specifically addressing torture, can be found here.
Shadow Codes on Engineering Ethics 