Then the person in question is 'spineless and unethical' and shares a responsibility for the results of their labour. 'Just following orders' does not absolve them from their responsibilities to their community. That their sacrifice might be in vain is a separate issue that should be, in my opinion, addressed by making education in ethics a mandatory part of the curriculum of all engineering degrees.

Depends on how valuable you are. I know people at Google who transferred internally fairly painlessly (i.e. the abridged loop) when they told their skip-levels they were uncomfortable with their work.