The following is not an actual question from my engineering ethics practice exam, but it might as well be:
You are driving down the street, when a kitten runs out in front of you. You should:
a. Do your best to run the kitten over. It it avoids you, back up and try again.
b. Stop your car, grab the kitten by its tail, and practice your hammer throw.
c. Avoid hitting the kitten with your car.
d. Stop your car, grab the kitten, take it home with you, have sex with it, and then throw it in your clothes dryer.
I'm not complaining, exactly, because I'll gladly take the free correct answers on what is otherwise a difficult exam. But the whole exercise illustrates the futility of teaching ethics in a classroom. If you gave an ethics exam to the engineers at Enron, or the lawyers in the Bush White House, they would pass with flying colors. Because they know the answers. We all know the answers.
The only way to enforce ethical behavior is to show consequences for unethical behavior. Make those bad actors pay a price for doing the wrong thing.
(PS: If you saw my example presidential ethics question yesterday and thought "where the hell is this coming from?" then this might help explain. A little bit.)
