Comment by paulddraper
1 year ago
> an ethical duty not to follow an order that is illegal
I'm not sure that has to be said, but yes, don't do illegal stuff.
You then push this question further outside the legal/illegal bounds.
1 year ago
> an ethical duty not to follow an order that is illegal
I'm not sure that has to be said, but yes, don't do illegal stuff.
You then push this question further outside the legal/illegal bounds.
Ethical is not the same as legal. Legal actions can be unethical and ethical actions can be illegal.
The Nuremberg trials established this after WW2: just obeying orders is not sufficient [0]. This is why modern militaries have a duty to disobey.
It's the same in civilian life: you have a personal duty to disobey an instruction that you personally consider to be unethical. You cannot hide behind "I was just obeying the law". You absolutely should break the law if you consider that law to be unethical. It is your personal responsibility to decide this.
So yes, you should do illegal stuff if not doing said illegal stuff would be unethical.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_principles
That's a separate point, sure.
"soldiers have an ethical duty not to follow an order that is illegal"
And, putting it that way, a legal duty not to follow an order that is unethical.
My point is that us Software Engineers have the same duty, in my opinion. If some pointy-haired boss tells us to build something that will cause misery for our users, I think we have an ethical duty to refuse to do it.