Engineers A B Confidentiality Safety Override
Cs · Constraint
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/76#Engineers_A_B_Confidentiality_Safety_Override
Definition
Any confidentiality obligations Engineers A and B owed to the MWC did not extend to concealing the confirmed public health risk created by the MWC's decision to proceed with the water source change before completing corrosion control improvements, because the safety disclosure obligation overrides confidentiality restrictions when public health is at risk.
Properties
Instance of
ConfidentialitySafetyOverrideConstraint
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConfidentialitySafetyOverrideConstraint
Case context
BER Case No. 89-7 was cited by the Board of Ethical Review as establishing that confidentiality obligations do not prevent an engineer from reporting safety violations to appropriate public authorities. The same principle applies to Engineers A and B's obligations to the MWC.
Confidence
0.88
Constraint statement
Any confidentiality obligations Engineers A and B owed to the MWC did not extend to concealing the confirmed public health risk created by the MWC's decision to proceed with the water source change before completing corrosion control improvements, because the safety disclosure obligation overrides confidentiality restrictions when public health is at risk.
Severity
critical
Source
NSPE Code of Ethics Section II.1 and Section II.1.a; BER Case No. 89-7
Temporal scope
After the MWC override and throughout the escalation process
Match Confidence
0.95
Match Reasoning
Individual typed as existing ontology class 'Confidentiality Safety Override Constraint'
Matched Ontology Label
Confidentiality Safety Override Constraint
Matches Existing
true
Synthesis Literal
caseContext
confidence
constraintClass
constraintStatement
severity
source
temporalScope
textReferences
Relationships
constrainedEntity
Agent Engineer A, Agent Engineer B
Source Evidence
Text references
it was unethical for Engineer A not to report the safety violations to the appropriate public authorities
we believe Engineer A could have taken other steps to address the situation, not the least of which was his paramount professional obligation to notify the appropriate authority if his professional judgment is overruled under circumstances where the safety of the public is endangered
Source text
it was unethical for Engineer A not to report the safety violations to the appropriate public authorities
TTL
@prefix case76: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/76#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix proeth-core: <http://proethica.org/ontology/core#> .
@prefix proeth-prov: <http://proethica.org/provenance#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case76:Engineers_A_B_Confidentiality_Safety_Override a proeth:ConfidentialitySafetyOverrideConstraint,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Engineers A B Confidentiality Safety Override" ;
proeth-core:constrainedEntity case76:Agent_Engineer_A,
case76:Agent_Engineer_B ;
proeth:caseContext "BER Case No. 89-7 was cited by the Board of Ethical Review as establishing that confidentiality obligations do not prevent an engineer from reporting safety violations to appropriate public authorities. The same principle applies to Engineers A and B's obligations to the MWC." ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Constraint" ;
proeth:confidence "0.88" ;
proeth:constrainedEntity "Engineers A and B" ;
proeth:constraintClass "Confidentiality Safety Override Constraint" ;
proeth:constraintStatement "Any confidentiality obligations Engineers A and B owed to the MWC did not extend to concealing the confirmed public health risk created by the MWC's decision to proceed with the water source change before completing corrosion control improvements, because the safety disclosure obligation overrides confidentiality restrictions when public health is at risk." ;
proeth:severity "critical" ;
proeth:source "NSPE Code of Ethics Section II.1 and Section II.1.a; BER Case No. 89-7" ;
proeth:temporalScope "After the MWC override and throughout the escalation process" ;
proeth:textReferences "it was unethical for Engineer A not to report the safety violations to the appropriate public authorities",
"we believe Engineer A could have taken other steps to address the situation, not the least of which was his paramount professional obligation to notify the appropriate authority if his professional judgment is overruled under circumstances where the safety of the public is endangered" ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInCase 76 ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInPass 2 ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInSection "discussion" ;
proeth-prov:firstDiscoveredAt "2026-06-05T11:29:35.133297+00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
proeth-prov:firstDiscoveredInCase 76 ;
proeth-prov:matchConfidence 0.95 ;
proeth-prov:matchReasoning "Individual typed as existing ontology class 'Confidentiality Safety Override Constraint'" ;
proeth-prov:matchedOntologyClass proeth:ConfidentialitySafetyOverrideConstraint ;
proeth-prov:matchedOntologyLabel "Confidentiality Safety Override Constraint" ;
proeth-prov:matchesExisting true ;
proeth-prov:sourceText "it was unethical for Engineer A not to report the safety violations to the appropriate public authorities" ;
proeth-prov:synthesisLiteral "caseContext",
"confidence",
"constraintClass",
"constraintStatement",
"severity",
"source",
"temporalScope",
"textReferences" ;
rdfs:comment "Any confidentiality obligations Engineers A and B owed to the MWC did not extend to concealing the confirmed public health risk created by the MWC's decision to proceed with the water source change before completing corrosion control improvements, because the safety disclosure obligation overrides confidentiality restrictions when public health is at risk." ;
skos:definition "Any confidentiality obligations Engineers A and B owed to the MWC did not extend to concealing the confirmed public health risk created by the MWC's decision to proceed with the water source change before completing corrosion control improvements, because the safety disclosure obligation overrides confidentiality restrictions when public health is at risk." ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-06-05T11:29:35.133297+00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasAttributedTo "Case 76 Extraction",
"claude-sonnet-4-6" ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 76 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
76
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-06-05T11:29:35.133297+00:00
First case
76
Generated
2026-06-05T11:29:35.133297+00:00
Attributed to
['Case 76 Extraction', 'claude-sonnet-4-6']
Generated by
ProEthica Case 76 Extraction