Integrating Computer Ethics into the Computer Science Curriculum - CS 5: Introduction to File Processing - The Research Center on Computing & Society

Text-only Version

Keith Miller

CS 5: Introduction to File Processing

Technical concept: A database gives a measure of control over access to the information stored in the database.

The distinction between a database and less formally organized data is the degree of control that can be exercised in a database system. A student learns to distinguish between the perspectives of a database administrator, an applications programmer, and an end user.

Example case: The display of patients waiting for a transplant

This fictional case is similar to the dilemma faced by physicians dealing with kidney transplants (Starzl et al., 1987).

A consultant is hired to design and implement a program that allows a large medical center to communicate with a nationwide organ donation database. Much of the interface software will be adapted from software made available by the administrators of the national database. The medical center uses the database to locate organs they need for transplants and to identify patients who need any organs the center has but cannot use.

In the section of the code that displays patients who need a particular organ, the consultant finds that the patients are ordered alphabetically. If more than 20 patients are waiting for a particular organ, the first 20 are displayed and the user can either select one of these 20 or move on to view the other patients. The consultant decides that this system gives an unfair advantage to patients with last names early in the alphabet. The consultant goes to the physicians in charge and describes the problem.

The physician in charge explains that the issue of which patients get an organ is very hot politically, and that the alphabetic listing was used by the national database in order to avoid the issue. He suggests that the medical center itself is struggling with the issue, but wants the listing alphabetically until they make a final decision. The physician has no idea when this decision will be made, and the consultant will probably no longer work for the center by then. The consultant feels uncomfortable with installing the program as is, but also feels uncomfortable holding up the project which is urgently needed to speed up organ donation procedures.

Ethical question: How much control can programmers expect to have over the use of their programs?

Information is power, and controlling that information is a heavy responsibility. Something as trivial as ordering entries on a screen may change lives dramatically. In the case study above, what obligations does the consultant have to the medical center? What obligations does the consultant have to the patients listed in the database? Discuss the responsibilities of the national database administrators, the medical center as a whole, and the physician in charge of the organ transplants in particular. A computer professional is paid for technical expertise; is a computer professional ever justified in volunteering opinions on non-technical issues? What are some options open to the consultant at this point? Are there ways to change the interface program which would reduce the bias towards certain patients? Who should bear the costs of any software needed to change the interface program?

Back to the top

Go to: CS 6: Operating Systems and Computer Architecture I

Home > Teaching Resources > Teaching Computer Ethics > Integrating Computer Ethics into the Computer Science Curriculum

The Research Center on Computing & Society
at Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street • New Haven, CT 06515
Director: (203) 392-6790 • e-mail: webmaster@computerethics.org

© 2000 – 2007 – Research Center on Computing & Society