Engineering Ethics

Engineering plays a great role in the modern society in terms of development and improvement of human life. However, engineenering has also led to fatal cases in the society. The golden gate is the site that records the highest number of suicides in the world.  The fatality rate of the site is approximately ninety eight percent. The main purpose for any invention is to make the life of human population better. Ethically, it is wrong for an engineer to develop a structure or invention that is detrimental and degrading to the cause of life. This is why engineers have stepped up on their efforts to reduce the number of deaths on such sites (Fledderman 2011). It is alarming that the golden gate is situated in the World’s Super power and yet despite all the achievements and leaps made by the country, engineers have been unable to tackle the suicide problem associated with the magnificent bridge.

 Among the innovations administered at the golden gate are the presence of suicide hotlines and the patrol of the bridge by staff. Engineers concerned with iron work are also known to volunteer time to talk to people who appear to be suicidal or even at times wrestle them down from the bridge. Through a matter of policy, the bridge is currently closed down for motorists although cyclists who are buzzed through remotely controlled security gates are let through. The attempt by engineers to introduce a security barrier has been marred by engineering difficulties, opposition and high costs. The proposal that has been recurring on end is to augment or replace the low railing. Barriers have been known to reduce the numbers of suicide at other land marks around the world. The reason why it is opposed by members of the public is because of aesthetics, costs and the bridge’s integrity could be lowered since a load would affect its stamina as a structure (Whitbeck 2011). Another proposal to hamper suicide attempts at the golden bridge is to create a plastic covered stainless steel net below the bridge as a suicide deterrent. The net would be expected to extend twenty feet on both sides of the bridge. The overall value for such an ambitious project would cost the taxpayer up to fifty dollars to complete hence slow down the suicides which have hit the one thousand mark since it was officially opened in the year 1935. The net would be more effective than other methods. This net can also be placed on sky scrapers and other tall buildings where suicide is prevalent.

The caltrain camera’s installed in front of trains and on the tracks can be used as one of the measures of discouraging suicide. The plan to install the cameras has been approved in America and is expected to cost the taxpayer about one million dollars. While engineers are yet to know by what margin suicide rates will decrease, the number of suicides is expected to reduce significantly. This is because most of suicides are often committed by people who are in secluded areas thus, people who are behind the camera can keep a close vigilance on commuters and prevent any foreseeable suicidal attempt. Such cameras have been known to reduce the number of suicides in other sites where suicide is prevalent (Whitbeck 2011). These cameras are also important because they can help to carry out investigations to solve the reason for suicide. By looking at the reason for suicide, engineers can then be able to put in place a way to bar the suicide.

According to Gary Spielmann, who is the former chief of suicide prevention for the state of New York, lonely magnificent structures tend to draw people with suicide tendencies. He based this on the fact that the Eiffel towers offered such opportunity before barriers were put in place. Although this is debatable, he based areas such as the Coronado bridge as a place where Suicide was most prevalent because the waters have an appeal (Fledderman 2011).  From a psychological point of view, he argued that water made the person committing suicide feel as if they were making a return to the womb. The Coronado Bridge has a high suicide rate since about two hunderd people have died whereas one hundred and forty more have died in the Skyway Bridge since 1987. The limitation of Gary’s experiment is that it does not show how the river’s running under the bridges can be made less appealing.

The use of lighting that makes the sites of suicide to be as bright as day can provide a positive effect in reducing the number of suicides.  According to psychologists, it is a fact that most suicides are committed in dark lonely place because these factors increase depression and are more likely to make a person strengthen the resolve to commit suicide. The use of mass detectors on bridges and other sites where suicide is prevalent would also be a welcome idea because they help identify those who are about to commit suicide. These technologies can be coupled with a two way loud speaker used by the staff of these sites to provide counseling services to those contemplating suicide (Fledderman 2011). This is an expensive exercise because staff on permanent pay is to be employed and trained on how to handle suicidal cases on such sites.

If suicide should increase, despite introducing several measures or improving on the existing ones, the logic and professional conduct guiding engineering as a discipline should not be changed or overlooked. Instead, the loopholes and new hypothesis should be formulated to help tackle a specific problem. This is because science is an ever changing discipline and new breakthroughs are discovered daily. For instance, in the early centuries, it was thought that the sun revolves around the world while in essence, the reverse is true and even a third grader knows this as a fact.  The implementation of barriers by engineers has been found to be successful in other areas such as on the Duke Ellington Bridge which is found in Washington D.C. When the barriers were put in place, many people predicted that the suicides would go to the nearby Taft Bridge but it was not so. This is indeed a positive reason why barriers should be put in place to discourage the vice.

All in all, it should be noted that in as much as engineers are held accountable for developing measures that help to discourage suicide, other sectors of the society should also chip in. A good case of this is that the economists should try and make America a country that has the best living conditions and the percentage of people who are rated as happy should be high. Sociologists and Psychologists should also integrate into the elementary education a culture that reviles suicide just like in African countries. A civic education can also be carried out to inform the citizens on the reasons why they should not route for suicide even if it is the last resort. It should be noted that in as much as suicide can be prevented or reduced, its total annihilation from the social framework is difficult since there are other factors such as, mental cases, which make it hard to contain this menace. Therefore, the society as a whole is responsible for minimizing suicidal cases.