Yes, they can. Most engineers (in the US) have to take an ethics course that covers this. Just because your boss says do something, doesn't give you a pass.
My job title is "Software Engineer," but I have a Computer Science degree. I use the title because that's what people call it, but it's not an engineering discipline. I had to take some ethics-related course work as part of my general education requirements, but this mostly involved reading some philosophy that vaguely related to ethics.
Do you have a source for ethics education and engineering?
I've never heard of this being something that most engineers are taught (in the US).
Definitely had to take an ethics course when I went to Waterloo (in Ontario, Canada). I believe it's a requirement for a university's program to receive Engineering accreditation. At any rate, all engineers took it.
You don't have to have a software engineering degree or an EIT/PE to be a "software engineer". I know plenty of people who have vaguely related degrees like mathematics or statistics that never had to take such courses. And of course there are many autodidacts in the field who studied god knows what.