CSci 300: Social Responsibility in Computer Science
Assignment #4
Wednesday, 28 October, 2015

Therac-25 Trials

This exercise was adapted from Exercise 8.38 in Baase's The Gift of Fire.

Suppose the family of one of the victims of the Therac-25 (John Deadman) has filed three lawsuits:

1. against the hospital that used the machine (Podunk Hollow General Hospital)
2. against the company that designed and manufactured the machine (AECL)
3. against the programmer who wrote the Therac-25 software (Wiley Hacker)

The instructor will divide the class into six teams:

1. attorneys for the family against each of three defendants, (a) hospital, (b) AECL, and (c) programmer.
2. attorneys for each of the three defendants, (a) hospital, (b) AECL, and (c) programmer.

Each team will present an approximately 270-second summation of the arguments for its case. Every team member is expected to be involved in the planning, but one or two members can be the spokesperson(s) for the group. The instructor provides the Friday, 23 October, session of the class for team meetings.

In preparing the arguments, each group may want to consider the information provided in Baase Chapter 8, the references on the disaster provided on the course schedule page, the codes of ethics or ethical analysis (also linked to the schedule page).

Afterward, the entire class will discuss the aspects of the case and degree of responsibility of each of the respondents.