Ethics Help-Line
The Help-Line is intended to provide advice for engineers, scientists, and trainees encountering ethical problems in their work. A principal goal of this Help-Line is to assist scientists and engineers in maintaining high ethical standards and in acting wisely when confronted with multiple and potentially conflicting responsibilities, even where this may lead to conflicts with organizational superiors.
The Help-line does not provide help with homework. Students who have questions about the Online Ethics Center's online resources should use the regular comment line -- See the "email us" tab at the top of each page.
The Ethics Help-Line is sponsored by the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science and is cosponsored by the National Institute for Engineering Ethics (NIEE). It is also supported by a contribution from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
How the Help-Line Works
An engineer or scientist can initiate contact with the Help-Line by sending an message briefly indicating the nature of the problem or by using our Form below. This message will be read by the director of the Online Ethics Center, Caroline Whitbeck, or Toni Thayer, the site manager and editor, and routed to an appropriate Help-Line responder, who will try to respond within three days.
The Help-Line responders are experienced engineers, scientists, and ethicists knowledgeable about the ethical problems faced by engineers and scientists. These include the people who were the principal responders for the Ethics Hotline operated successfully for a year by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
The wishes of Help-Line callers with respect to confidentiality will be respected. An important rule of the Help-Line is to protect the interests of the caller to the greatest extent consistent with our adherence to ethical practices. However, although every effort will be made to preserve confidentiality, it must be recognized that confidentiality might be breached due to imperfect electronic security or to special legal circumstances.
The Help-Line is intended to supplement, rather than replace other sources of advice on ethical matters. It should be understood that difficult situations may arise in which intelligent, knowledgeable, people of goodwill may disagree as to the best course of action, and that the Help-Line can only offer information and advice; it cannot guarantee a good outcome.
Note: The Help-Line is not intended to deal with employee grievances unrelated to ethics, the Help-Line will not give legal advice, and the Help-Line does not have the resources to do investigations.
We do not intend to replace other sources of help, such as, an ombudsperson or ethics office in the scientist's or engineer's own organization.