"I would suggest as a rule of thumb that engineers and
other workers in large corporations are morally permitted to go public with
information about the safety of a product if the following conditions are met:
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1. | if the harm that will be done by the product is serious and considerable; | |
2. | if they make their concerns known to their superiors; and | |
3. | if getting no satisfaction from their immediate superiors, they
exhaust the channels available within the corporation, including
going to the board of directors."
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"For an engineer to have a moral obligation to
bring his case for safety
to the public, I think two other conditions have to be fulfilled, in
addition to the three mentioned above."
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4. | "He must have documented evidence that would convince a reasonable, impartial observer that his view of the situation is correct and the company policy is wrong." | |
5. | "There must be strong evidence that making the information public will in fact prevent the threatened serious harm." |