Arguably, this is all a matter of professional ethics, and much of that down to Engineers - since we design, build, approve for flight, and if-necessary ground aeroplanes, as well as approving much of the operating data.
After some similar problems in my own sphere, and having to ground quite a large number of areoplanes (none that have been discussed on Pprune as yet), I've started to think more deeply about this subject. En route I found
http://ethics.tamu.edu/ which is a university site discussing such ethical issues, with some very readable case studies. Not all in aviation, but all very pertinent to it. I recommend it to the interested reader - particularly the Challenger (Space Shuttle) case study which reads very similarly to issues faced almost daily by aircraft operators.
I've offered to provide some case studies to the authors of the site (although haven't finished any of them yet), and perhaps other people here are in a position to do the same. Anybody who was, for example, involved in the investigation and grounding/not-grounding decisions on 737, Concorde and A310 might well have some useful experience to empart.
G