Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1988)
Tuesday, April 5, 1988/The Battalion/Page 3 rofessor: Professional ethics Prosecutor begins romote ‘greatest happiness’ By Dean Sueltenfuss Reporter com^ inters t( d as loBj, en the til lieve but teach ill Ked at em to le prev, 'cise" ofj to chut ate where Professional ethics should attempt to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, A&M professor said Monday inhg “Ethics in Engineering,” a ogram sponsored Texas A&M anch of The National Engineering Honor Society in the Zachry Engi- ering Center. Dr. Manuel Davenport, an A&M professor who has given a number :hurc of presentations on ethics, said pro- ,| lr . fessional ethics are a small part of liilosophy in general, and that juch of philosophy involves asking fuestions for their own sake. J “Philosophers are really more in terested in asking cjuestions than Bley are in answering them,” he said. ■They’re a lot like mountain climb ers— what they really enjoy is climb ing — they’re not too crazy about gening to the top.” I Davenport said ethics involves the Suestion of what actions are correct. I “To answer this question, what we dn is come up with ethical theories,” he said. -tain on]!, he relip; 'uly fret now to truly fet| E the threi niinoriti a distant urtunatei ver, ben freedod ■ histon mist (or “Ethical theories, quite simply, are definitions of right and wrong ac tions. There must be hundreds of ethical theories running loose in the world and if you go into the history of philosophy there have probably been several thousand.” Davenport said some ethical the ories are particularly effective in professional fields. “Follow those rules of behavior which generally promote the great est happiness of the greatest number (of people),” he said. “That, I sug gest, is a very workable ethical the ory— especially in the context of en gineering.” Davenport added that it can be very difficult to apply a broad ethical theory to a particular profession. “Each profession really requires a different professional ethic because in each profession there’s a different relationship between the profes sional and the client,” he said. Students do seem to gain a sense of professional ethics from college level courses, Davenport said, citing some of his experiences as a profes sor. Photo by Jade Boyd Manuel Davenport “Eve taught professional ethics for quite a while — long enough so that students come back to campus and come by and visit,” he said. “I say ‘Did you learn anything useful?’ “What almost all of them say is this: T’m not sure that I really acted any more ethically than I would have otherwise, but I was certainly aware of it when I was not acting ethically.’ It (my class) increased their ethical sensitivity.” Jim Bayless, a junior electrical en gineering student, said today’s engi neers seem 'to have a higher stan dard of ethics than engineering students currently enrolled at A&M. “I’ve seen a lot of them (students) going down the tubes,” Bayless said. “There are a lot of engineering stu dents that I think really shouldn’t be allowed to get their degree. I’ve seen a lot of cheating going on and I think it’s a pretty big problem at A&M.” Davenport said there are two questions that should be asked when the ethical actions of an engineer are called into question — how you would like to be treated if you were in the same situation, and what the practical consequences of that choice would be. “There’s no simple, clear-cut an swer to these very, very tough kinds of questions,” Davenport said. closing arguments in supremacist trial ember of upcoming shuttle flight says 'accidents just an ‘occupational hazard’ ■ PHILADELPHIA (AP) — His mother sometimes wishes he’d picked a different profession, but ijni Bagian has waited seven years to Avon the space shuttle, and he’s not )ut to let the Challenger accident in his dream. Bagian, 36, a physician and engi- neei from Philadelphia with bound- enthusiasm for the space pro- am, learned two weeks ago that he bd been picked for one of the shut tle crews that will get the program k on its feet. It has been unded since seven astronauts Jed on the Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. ■ Bagian is stationed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, although he frequently returns to the Phila- ; delphia area to see his parents and conduct shuttle-related experiments at the Naval Air Development Cen ter in Warminster, a suburb of Phila delphia. Bagian’s mother, Rose, realized her worst fears about her son’s pre carious profession when the Chal lenger exploded as it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “That made it all a little worse. It brought home that it can happen,” she said. Still, she said she knows bet ter than to try to talk her son out of it. For Bagian, who had worked with five of the Challenger crew members since becoming an astronaut in 1981, the accident was neatly placed under the heading, “Occupational Hazard.” He had been assigned to fly on the Challenger himself during 1986, but all manned U.S. space flights were put on hold after Jan uary. • “Commercial airliners crash, too. That doesn’t stop you from doing things. We want to get going,” Ba gian said. “One of these days if we keep flying the shuttle, we’ll proba bly have another accident. That’s just life, the way it goes. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.” Karl Scherzberg, a longtime friend from high school and Drexel University, said he never heard Ba gian reconsider his commitment to the shuttle program, although he be lieves the accident must have pro voked some serious thought. “I’m sure after the accident he’s been thinking about the reliability of systems and equipment,” Scherzberg said. “But there hasn’t really been a difference in him because the acci dent only confirmed what he knew already about risk.” Bagian said, “My own particular background or style or upbringing is that you don’t make too big a deal about things.” He said he may have inherited his coolheadedness and love of aviation from his father, a World War II fighter pilot. As someone who “was always at the top of his class in everything,” the younger Bagian “may have traded security for the uniqueness of being an astronaut,” his father, Philip, said. “I’m familiar with risk,” Philip Ba gian said. He said he understands his son’s excitement with the space program every time he looks at the moon and feels “awed” that people set foot there. FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) — The government asked a jury Monday to convict 13 men, explaining defects in government witnesses by saying, “Plots made in hell don’t have angels as partners.” U.S. Attorney J. Michael Fitz- hugh, whose witnesses have been branded by defendants as dishonest men looking out for themselves, said government attorneys take their wit nesses as they find them. Attorney N.C. Deday LaRene, representing Robert E. Miles, had just called the key government wit ness “a man who was filled with madness and megalomania — a mental disorder.” The case went to the jury Monday afternoon. “It’s all in Yahweh’s hands now,” Sheila Beam, 21, wife of defendant Louis Ray Beam Jr., said. “If the truth be known, they’ll be acquitted.” Fitzhugh said nine defendants ac cused of seditious conspiracy have tried to convey the idea that they only hoped to bring about a white- supremacist nation through a peace ful move by whites in the northwest ern United States. If that is the case, he said, why did: • Defendant David Lane say in a tape-recorded conversation that he needed to bomb a major telephone facility? • Some supremacists kill Walter West, a man whose death in Idaho has been reported but whose body has not been found? • Defendant Bruce Pierce be came a member of The Order, a vio lent white-supremacist group which committed armed robberies purpor tedly to finance supremacist activ ities, by taking an oath declaring a “full state of war”? • Members of a white-supremac ist group based in Arkansas under the leadership of James Ellison col lected an arsenal of automatic weap ons, silencers, grenades and other explosives. Closing arguments began late Thursday and continued Friday and Saturday, concluding Monday with the arguments by LaRene and Fitz hugh. The government contends that a conspiracy was made in July 1983 at Hayden Lake, Idaho, at the Aryan Nations Congress sponsored by the Rev. Richard G. Butler, 70, founder of Aryan Nations. Butler, Beam and Miles are lead ers of white-supremacist activities, while other defendants accused of the attempt to overthrow the gov ernment have convictions for racke teering, murder, and civil rights vio lations through murder. Ellison is serving 20 years for racketeering and hopes for a sen tence reduction for cooperating with the government, according to his testimony. He had himself crowned King of the Ozark Mountains, be lieved he received messages from God, and led the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord un til his arrest in April 1985 at the CSA compound in north Arkansas after a four-day standoff with state and fed eral authorities. CS woman reports rape in apartment A College Station woman told police Sunday that she was raped in her apartment that morning at about 6:30 a.m. by a man who en tered her home while she was sleeping. The incident occurred at the Oakwood apartment complex, 503 Southwest Parkway, in Col lege Station. The woman described her at tacker as a white male with a heavy build, wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes. Sunday’s report brings the number of reported rapes in Col lege Station this year to six, half of the number reported in all of 1987. Police records show that two of the 12 sexual assaults re ported last year resulted in ar rests of a suspect. No recorcis were available as to the number of arrests resulting from reported rapes this year. ■n:'A S' ENGLlj ow, Every 1 'acar,< will g 0 ' 1 ngplatfl SENSI8® ON ¥0® me is 10 parents t ■ these i n char?| 'L r life 11 ing t0 ' friend*' att Mm •learn about the performing arts •get involved on campus •help bring Broadway and classical artists to A&M •have fun/keep off the streets % Information Sessions: ^ues. April 5, 7:00 pm, 308 Rudder ^ed. April 6, 7:00 pm, 510 Rudder Applications are also available in 216 MSC for more information call: Paul at 268-8682 or 845-1515 ^Memorial Student Center Opera and Performing Arts Society SENIOR WEEKEND 1988 Senior Bash Friday, April 15, 8 p:fn;^, Texas Hall of;Fame, $5/couple Featurind Melissa Prescptt PliT U ** 10m I ^ Saturday; April 16, 7 p.m.. . r Coach of St/iLoui^Cardihals *' o —" k.>i' — -*ds&** Saturday, April 16, 9 p.m. MSC and Rudder Exhibit Hall, $35/coupie Featuring Michael, Michael and the Maxx Ed Gerlach Orchestra The Senior Weekend Package at $65/couple, includes all three events. Tickets are on sale at Rudder Box Office at 845-1234. All tickets are presale.