Standard of Care as Ethical Floor Invoked by BER Discussion Section
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/88#Standard_of_Care_as_Ethical_Floor_Invoked_by_BER_Discussion_Section
Properties
Instance of
StandardofCareasEthicalFloor
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#StandardofCareasEthicalFloor
Applied to
Climate change impact assessment obligation
Regulatory standards for tidal crossing design
Balancing with
Client Loyalty
Regulatory Gap Awareness and Proactive Risk Disclosure
Concrete expression
The BER's holding that Engineer A must go 'beyond' existing requirements to address climate change impacts — and that the obligation exists regardless of regulatory requirement — operationalizes the principle that the standard of care is the ethical floor, not the ceiling, and that engineers must consider exceeding it when professional judgment identifies material risks not captured by regulatory standards.
Confidence
0.91
Importance
high
Interpretation
In this context, the standard of care floor principle requires Engineer A to recognize that meeting regulatory requirements is the minimum, not the maximum, of ethical obligation — and that the identified flooding risk to upstream homeowners requires Engineer A to go beyond the regulatory minimum.
Invoked by
Engineer A Climate Change Impact Evaluating Infrastructure Engineer
Tension resolution
Standard of care floor principle supports going beyond regulatory minimum; Engineer A must not treat regulatory compliance as a complete discharge of ethical obligation.
Source Evidence
Source text
Considering the effects of climate change in engineering planning and design adds substantial complexity to engineering decision-making as engineers consider 'going beyond' existing requirements to provide long-term protection of public health, safety, and welfare.
Text references
Considering the effects of climate change in engineering planning and design adds substantial complexity to engineering decision-making as engineers consider 'going beyond' existing requirements to provide long-term protection of public health, safety, and welfare.
Engineer A does have an ethical obligation to address the impacts of the project on public health, safety, and welfare regardless of whether or not that is required by applicable law.
TTL
@prefix case88: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/88#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case88:Standard_of_Care_as_Ethical_Floor_Invoked_by_BER_Discussion_Section a proeth:StandardofCareasEthicalFloor,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Standard of Care as Ethical Floor Invoked by BER Discussion Section" ;
proeth:appliedto "Climate change impact assessment obligation",
"Regulatory standards for tidal crossing design" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Client Loyalty",
"Regulatory Gap Awareness and Proactive Risk Disclosure" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The BER's holding that Engineer A must go 'beyond' existing requirements to address climate change impacts — and that the obligation exists regardless of regulatory requirement — operationalizes the principle that the standard of care is the ethical floor, not the ceiling, and that engineers must consider exceeding it when professional judgment identifies material risks not captured by regulatory standards." ;
proeth:confidence "0.91" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "88" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-27T14:20:08.457238+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "88" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-27T14:20:08.457238+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "In this context, the standard of care floor principle requires Engineer A to recognize that meeting regulatory requirements is the minimum, not the maximum, of ethical obligation — and that the identified flooding risk to upstream homeowners requires Engineer A to go beyond the regulatory minimum." ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Climate Change Impact Evaluating Infrastructure Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Standard of Care as Ethical Floor" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Considering the effects of climate change in engineering planning and design adds substantial complexity to engineering decision-making as engineers consider 'going beyond' existing requirements to provide long-term protection of public health, safety, and welfare." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Standard of care floor principle supports going beyond regulatory minimum; Engineer A must not treat regulatory compliance as a complete discharge of ethical obligation." ;
proeth:textreferences "Considering the effects of climate change in engineering planning and design adds substantial complexity to engineering decision-making as engineers consider 'going beyond' existing requirements to provide long-term protection of public health, safety, and welfare.",
"Engineer A does have an ethical obligation to address the impacts of the project on public health, safety, and welfare regardless of whether or not that is required by applicable law." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 88 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-28T10:32:26.863874"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 88 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
88
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-27T14:20:08.457238+00:00
First case
88
Generated
2026-02-27T14:20:08.457238+00:00
Attributed to
Case 88 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-28T10:32:26.863874
Generated by
ProEthica Case 88 Extraction