Based on the events leading up to the devastating floods in Queensland and the eventual lawsuit brought against the dam engineers, views have been expressed on both sides of the division as to whether the actions taken by the engineers were truly ethical or not. We explored this avenue and found that both sides of the divide have good reasons to justify their actions. First, we will explore the pathway by which the engineers' decisions were appropriate and ethical. It can be said that the engineers actually used utilitarianism in their decisions and actions, which made these decisions ethically correct. Action utilitarianism is essentially doing the right thing, which would benefit the majority of people, based on the situation currently occurring. One of the reasons why the measures taken can be considered ethically good is that if the dam had not been opened, there would have been no other way to resolve the increasing water levels in the dam. If no action had been taken, there could have been seriously devastating effects, such as erosion of the dam wall due to water spilling over the dam wall, thereby weakening the structure, or loss of control of water flow. Professor Hubert Chanson, Professor of Hydraulic Engineering at the University of Queensland, mentioned that Wivenhoe Dam was actually designed as an embankment dam and therefore should not be overrun, i.e. say that water should not be able to flow beyond the limits of the dam. (Andersen 2011). Although there is a secondary spillway, it is however recommended not to use it, as the use of this spillway would mean that there would be a surge of water leaving the dam and a loss of flow control. 'water, w...... middle of paper...... the doctors' quick decisions had saved the patient, but the patient was now unable to walk, for example. This is a very real situation that has occurred many times in healthcare. From this perspective, we would say that the doctor did his job correctly based on the demanding situation that required a quick decision, otherwise the patient might not even survive. Relating this health care concept to the Queensland floods and the Wivenhoe Dam engineers, the rising waters in the dam would have been the disease, while the engineers would have been the health professionals and the patient. citizens of Queensland. It is from this perspective that we believe that the actions were indeed correct. Without the quick decisions taken during the floods, the damage could have been much more serious..