DP5

DecisionPoint
http://proethica.org/ontology/cases#DecisionPoint

DP5

Should the NSPE Board of Ethical Review apply a uniform ethics standard to Engineer A identical to that applied to US-licensed NSPE members, or should it recognize a modified standard for international members whose home-country law permits or incentivizes conduct the Code otherwise prohibits?

The NSPE Board of Ethical Review must decide whether to apply the same ethical standard to Engineer A — an NSPE International Member whose home-country law not only permits but affirmatively incentivizes payments to foreign officials — as it would apply to a US-licensed NSPE member facing the same conduct question. The question is whether differential treatment of international members based on home-country legal permissibility is justified or whether it constitutes impermissible moral relativism that undermines the Code's universality.

Apply the full NSPE Code of Ethics uniformly to Engineer A as an NSPE International Member, treating home-country legal permissibility — including affirmative state incentivization through tax deductions — as carrying no ethical weight under the Code, and holding Engineer A to the same standard as a US-licensed NSPE member facing the same conduct question.

Apply a modified ethics standard to NSPE International Members that accounts for the sovereign legal framework of their home country, holding that Code provisions which directly conflict with home-country law — particularly where that law affirmatively incentivizes the otherwise-prohibited conduct — do not bind international members in the same way they bind US-licensed members.

Affirm that the uniform ethics standard applies to all members including international members, but recognize that the absence of enforcement mechanisms over non-US members means the Board's ruling operates as an advisory ethical determination rather than a binding disciplinary finding, leaving compliance to professional conscience without institutional consequence.

NSPE Board of Ethical Review