Sadly I suspect corporate decisions get made in a microcosm. Whatever is good for the next quarter or next product. A middle manager would be fired for doing anything else. Or at least reviewed badly. "Sure you did the right thing; but your numbers were down. Sorry no raise/promotion"

So there is no particular person in a corporation that has direct incentive to be responsible.

So we need to change that. We need to make sure there is a heavy stick being used against those that decide to make these unethical decisions.

After all, I was just following orders ...

Yes, I understand that this is the logical followup, but there were individuals standing up to orders and being executed, and it didn't make a lick of difference when the problem was systemic.

As I opened with, yes, to some extent we all share the blame, but appealing to everyone to individually make the difference will never work, because it only takes a few to still get the (dirty) job done. If everyone played nice we wouldn't need any laws.

Still, if there's nobody at the 'top' making decisions (and unless the CEO micromanages there isn't) then we've just moved the problem from Engineers to Middle Managers.

Somebody has to take a stand. In Canada they have an Engineering oath and code of ethics. We should all aspire to be our better selves. After all, we're not being executed; we'll just have to find another contract.

Sure, but I as an engineer can't control a middle manager, but a CEO most definitely can. If you make the CEO liable, he/she sure as hell will move the incentives towards better practices.

Ideally I absolutely agree with you, and we should all strive for the best and make a stand wherever possible, but the cynic in me believes that it can never completely solve the issues, just shift the burden to someone else down the line.