Being morally ethical in a computer science career can be difficult due to the influence a software engineer may have for a specific project. The ethical dilemma demonstrated in “The code I’m still ashamed of,” by Bill Sourour, is an excellent example of how a software engineer may be put in a positions in which ignoring moral principles leads to better career opportunities. In his article, Sourour explains that he needed to create a misleading website that would push a new drug into the market. The drug was targeting teenage girls, which Sourour saw as mischief.
After reading Sourour’s article, I decided to focus on two big topics that would allow me to better understand his experience. In “The code I’m still ashamed of,” Sourour explains that he did end up creating the misleading website which eventually led to him quitting his job. Before quitting his job and right after the creation of the website, he found out that a teenage girl had died from the symptoms of the drug his website helped promote. The first topic I will focus on is whether I believe it was ethical for him to continue his work on the website. Due to the fact that Sourour knew the purpose of the website was to mislead people, continuing his work was unethical, but it is very easy to understand why he continued. Based on the information he had, Sourour could not have foreseen the death of the girl and the fact that she used the drug doesn't necessarily mean that she used it because of the website Sourour created. Even though it was unethical for him to continue, the true blame should have been put on the client who requested the creation of the website and on the company that decided meet the needs of that client. I believe being ethical goes further than deciding whether something is bad or wrong because most problems in the real world don’t have binary solutions. I believe there are different levels of ethics. For example, stealing a candy from a baby and murdering people are both unethical but it is obvious that the levels of ethicalness are not the same. So while I do believe Sourour’s decision to continue was unethical, I don’t think it was unethical to the point where he should be considered an unethical person. The second topic I am going address focuses on three ethical values that were in question when Sourour made his decision. The first ethical value in question was personal integrity. Sourour felt that what he was doing wasn’t morally correct but he did it anyways which demonstrated no moral integrity in his part. He did demonstrate some integrity when he decided to quit some time after the incident. Another important ethical value that Sourour did not follow was honesty. Sourour knew that his website would mislead teenage girls, so his actions did not demonstrate him as an activist for honesty. Finally, the ethical value Sourour did demonstrate was loyalty. He was loyal to his company and did what he had to do in order to satisfy the client who was paying his company. Although his loyalty was misplaced, he still completed his work.
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