Report

i. Identification of the central ethical issues involved in the chosen engineering incident
of product or process failure:

The central ethical issues involved in the GM proprietary theft include

the concepts that engineers are considered faithful agents or trustees
for their employer, should avoid deceptive acts, and that all engineers
should act honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully. Thus, the
question arises as to whether or not the code of ethics was followed
by Ms. Du and her husband. This question can be answered with a
swift and decisive: no. This is due largely in part to the fact that the
two individuals were committing a form of corporate espionage and
subsequently acted in a gravely unlawful fashion. The couple also
violated the basis of the code of ethics by acting deceptively and
violating the trust that GM placed in them to remain honorable and
ethical.
ii. Identification of the ethical protagonists and the central ethical issues that they
encountered throughout the incident:

The ethical protagonists in the GM conspiracy incident Yu Qin, aka

Yu Chin, 49, and his wife, Shanshan Du, aka Shannon Du, 51, of
Troy, Michigan, violated a series of ethical rules defined in the NSPE.
When the couple was hired, GM bound them as faithful trustees for
the information entrusted upon them. They violated this Fundamental
Canon by conducting themselves in a dishonorable, irresponsible,
and unlawful fashion through deceptive acts. Alongside this
misconduct, the couple accepted compensation discretely from a
party that was not involved in GM. This violates the Rules of Practice
in the NSPE. Yu Chin and Shannon Du neglected the entirety of the
NSPE and were stopped in their tracks by Andrew G. Arena, Special
Agent in Charge of the FBI, and are now serving time under the
jurisdiction of Barbara McQuade, United States Attorney for the
Eastern District of Michigan.

iii. Choosing one of the main characters or ethical protagonists involved in the case
analyze their behavior and actions as compliant or in contradiction to actions dictated by
the NSPE Code of Ethics found on Blackboard:

Shanshan Du, also known as Shannon Du worked at Controlled

Power from 1998 to 2000, where her husband worked as Vice
President in research and development. Du had access to
confidential documents, and passed the secret documents regarding
hybrid vehicles to her husband to help a competitor and Millenium
Technology International Inc., the company both Shanshan and her
husband, Yu Qin, started in 2000. This act of leaking documents
violated the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code
of Ethics directly. In the Fundamental Canons of the Code of Ethics, it
is explicitly stated that all engineers must ...conduct themselves
honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully.., and Shanshans
action of leaking the documents was in direct contrast of this. In 2000,
Shanshan was hired as an engineer in General Motors Advanced
Technology Vehicles group. She signed an agreement with GM in
2001 to protect GMs documents and that if she left GM, she would
return all of GMs documents to GM. She violated this in 2005 by
copying about 16,262 documents to a hard drive. The monetary worth
of these documents was about $40 million. This act violated the the
Fundamental Canon mentioned above along with violating another
rule which requires engineers to avoid deceptive acts. In addition,
another rule stating that engineers are not permitted to reveal facts,
data, or information without consent of the client or employer, was
violated as Shanshan copied thousands of documents without
permission. Shanshan and her husband were caught by the FBI and
indicted in July 2010.

Works Cited
FBI. FBI, 28 Apr. 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.fbi.gov/detroit/press-releases/2010/de072210.htm>.
"Code of Ethics." National Society of Professional Engineers. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics>.