PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
12/10/10
v Course Outline
1.
What
is ethics?
2.
What
is professional ethics?
3.
What
are the distinctions between profession, trade and vocation?
4.
Processes
of professionalization
5.
Models
of professional-Client relationship
6.
Cases
Studies of Professional Ethical Situations
I.Medical Profession
II.legal Profession
III.Academic
Profession
IV.Priestly
Profession
V.Engineering
Profession
v What is ethics?
Ethics is a
sub-field of philosophy that aims at clarifying the nature of right and wrong,
good and bad. Besides clarifying the meaning and justification of ethical
ideas, ethics tells us how we ought to behave. Ethics involves asking questions
about the good life; it requires examining right and wrong conduct, good and
bad values. Ethics is an aspect of human life.
Ethics is concerned
with a critical analysis of human morality. This is important because on an
ordinary level, we have moral and social norms guiding the society. On a higher
level, we consider the professional ethics. This is equally important because
the professionals are placed on a higher level than the ordinary person due to
the knowledge they have acquired.
The knowledge we
acquire is made possible because of the stable nature of the society in which
we live. Therefore we have to use this knowledge not only to better our own lot
but also that of others in the society.
·
What is
Professional Ethics?
Professional ethics concerns the moral
issues that arise because of the specialist knowledge that professionals
attain, and how the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a
service to the public. The professional carries additional moral
responsibilities to those held by the population in general and in society.
This is because professionals are capable of making and acting on an informed
decision in situations that the general public cannot, because they have not
received the relevant training.
For example, a lay
member of the public could not be held responsible for failing to act to save a
car crash victim because they could not give an emergency tracheotomy. This is
because they do not have the relevant knowledge. In contrast, a fully trained
doctor (with the correct equipment) would be capable of making the correct
diagnosis and carrying out the procedure and we would think it wrong if they
stood by and failed to help in this situation. You cannot be held accountable
for failing to do something that you do not have the ability to do.
·
Code of practice
Questions arise as to
the ethical limits of the professional’s responsibility and how power and authority
should be used in service to the client and society. Most professions have
internally enforced codes of practice that members of the profession must
follow, to prevent exploitation of the client[1]
and preserve the integrity of the members of the profession. This is not only
to the benefit of the client but to the benefit of those belonging to the
profession.
Disciplinary codes allow
the profession to draw a standard of conduct and ensure that individual
practitioners meet this standard, by disciplining them from the professional
body if they do not practice accordingly. This allows those professionals who
act with conscience to practice in the knowledge that they will not be
undermined commercially by those who have less ethical qualms. It also
maintains the public’s trust in the profession, meaning that the public will
continue to seek their services.
v
19/10/10
F
Three
dimensions of profession ethics
1.
First dimension: Unethical
professional behaviour. This is the dimension in which the professionals
themselves see professional ethics. For example, the way they consider issues
such as sex, lies, money. The questions that arise here is when would it be unethical
for a medical doctor to have sex with his client? When does it become unethical
for a lawyer to collect money from his client before appearing in court to
represent him? When does it become unethical for a lecturer to date his
student?
When professionals talk
about ethics, they talk about what ways to deal with sex, lies and money. They
talk about which way that crosses the line and which does not; and they
fabricate code of conducts to settle this issue. Professional ethics in this
sense is of immense significance for the professionals but it has little
philosophical interest because the principle that underlies the code of their
conduct is not subject to philosophical debate.
2.
Second dimension: Profession
itself (Professionalism[2]).
This concerns the leadership of the professions. The attendant question at
this level is on how to protect the values of the professions in order not to
commercialise them.
On this point, some
people have argued that commercialising the values of the profession is good
since it will check monopoly and help the consumers. However, commercialising
the values of a profession will generate competition and this will eventually
lead to complete breakdown of the profession because the quality of services
will be very low.
3.
Third dimension: Philosophical
interest. Professional ethics concerns the philosophical interest in the
genuine moral dilemmas that we can find in the profession. For instance, as a
priest, one is expected to keep intact the confessional secrecy. Now let’s
imaging this situation whereby someone kills the father or mother, sister or
brother of a priest and runs away. Eventually this person comes to the priest
in a confessional and tells the priest the he is the one that committed the
act. Now this priest has the obligation of keeping the confessional seal and at
the same time, he owes the society the responsibility of handing over such a
person to the police because he constitutes a threat to the larger society –
what should the priest do? Under what condition can a priest violate the
confession confidentiality?
Under what condition is
one allowed to commit abortion keeping in mind that the church says no to
abortion? The third dimension of professional ethics gives us concrete
situations that are of philosophical interest.
v
26/10/10
F
Common Morality and Status or Role Morality
A fundamental problem in
professional ethics is on how to strike a balance between common morality and
status or role morality. Common morality refers to the general accepted norms
in the society. For example, we all agree that keeping one’s promise is always
good; being faithful to one’s duty, killing is bad and so forth. This is a
universal morality which everybody readily accepts. Status or role morality on
the other hand transcends common morality. It is that type of morality which is
imposed on a professional in virtue of their profession.
Many a time,
professional morality conflicts against common morality. In order words, the
professionals in the course of discharging their duties go against common
morality. We have said that this is a fundamental problem in professional
ethics because it is hard to determine which morality we should used as the
determining factor to govern people’s action in society. If we consider common
morality to be fundamental, this implies that the professional would be unable to
carry out their duties as professionals. If on the other hand we consider
status or role morality to be fundamental, the society suffers on account of
it. Yet, the society needs the professionals for the smooth running of the
society.
Examples: Let’s take the
morality which says that soldiers should defend their country in cases of war.
Imaging that Cameroon prepares to wage war against Nigerian; of course, we
expect that our soldiers would go to war against Cameroon in defence of the
country. Now in the course of carrying out this duty, the soldiers start
looting and killing innocent people. Now common morality says that killing is
bad. However, the soldiers must necessarily kill if they are to carry out their
duties as soldiers. How do we balance the equation?
Furthermore, take the
case for example that the Cameroonian army hides their weapons in civilian
territory so that Nigerian soldier would not discover them. However, the
Nigerian army gets to know this and for Nigerian army to be successful in defending
Nigerian, one of the conditions is that they must destroy the Cameroonian
weapons. In the bid to do this, the Nigerian army must necessarily kill
civilians and if they try to spear the civilians, the Cameroon soldiers will
come and destroy us. The question now is under what morality should the society
operate? On what basis of morality should a professional be judged?
On a theoretical level, there is
debate as to whether an ethical code for a profession should be consistent with
the requirements of morality governing the public. Separatists argue that
professions should be allowed to go beyond such confines when they judge it
necessary. This is because they are trained to produce certain outcomes which
may take moral precedence over other functions of society. For example, it
could be argued that a doctor may lie to a patient about the severity of their
condition, if there is reason to think that telling the patient could cause
them so much distress that it would be detrimental to their health.
v
2/11/10
F
Three problems in
professional ethics
1.
The
problem of defining a profession
2.
The
role of the professional in the society
3.
The
professional-client relationship
F What is a profession?
·
A
profession is a vocation or occupation that has been transformed through
extensive educational/ formal training for two purposes:
1.
Direct
compensation
2.
Service
to the society
A
profession exists therefore, first, for direct gain and also as a service to
the society
NB: It is not every vocation/occupation/trade/job that
is a profession. However, there is no way we can define a vocation without
talking about the process of professionalization.
·
Profession
can also be defined as a body of people within an
occupation who have related careers, interests, education, knowledge, training and ethics. Although professionals
make their living in what they do, this paid work is more than just a job or
occupation alone. Whether the profession is law, medicine, plumbing,
writing, interior
design
or baseball, those who are in it are
expected to meet and maintain common standards.
·
A profession is "a disciplined
group of individuals who adhere to high ethical standards and uphold themselves
to, and are accepted by, the public as possessing special knowledge and skills
in a widely recognised, organised body of learning derived from education and
training at a high level, and who are prepared to exercise this knowledge and
this skills in the interest of others
NB.
The above definition is biased in favour
of the public against the interests of the professionals themselves. The responsibility
of people in a certain profession to the public is therefore an important
distinction from those who may participate in the field on an amateur or
non-professional basis.
·
People within a certain profession
are at a much different level, as well as held to a higher degree of
responsibility, than those doing the same thing as a hobby or on a more casual
basis. For instance, an aspiring writer who writes for no or low pay wouldn't
be expected to produce the same quality of work as a professionally experienced
author who makes a full-time living at the craft. In some professions, an
amateur or hobby level isn't allowed for reasons of public safety. For example,
only a professional physician with qualified credentials is permitted to treat
patients as a medical doctor.
·
Professional
development is often a key feature of
professions. Those within a specific profession usually don't just complete the
initial education and credentials, but typically must renew licensing or take
updating courses. Professional associations, to which many people in a certain
profession belong, typically set standards as well as guidelines for refresher
courses and other types of career updating.
F
Characteristics of
a vocation
1.
There
is an extensive theoretical knowledge that determines.......
2.
Professional
association/body
3.
Extensive
education or formal training especially at the university
4.
Examination
and competence test
5.
Institutional
training
6.
Licence
membership
7.
Autonomy
and self.......
8.
Code
of professional conduct
9.
Public
service and altruism
10.
Exclusion,
monopoly and recognition
11.
Status
12.
Male
dominated
13.
Ritual
14.
Inaccessible
body of knowledge.
NB. It is rather impossible for any profession to
fulfil all these demands before it could be recognised as professional. There
are however indispensable qualities that a profession must possess before it
could be regarded as being professional. These include:
1.
Extensive
education or formal training especially at the university
2.
Code
of professional conduct
3.
Professional
association or body
v
30/11/10
F
Professional Code
of Conduct
A person
becomes a professional in any field of endeavour in other to derive a
meaningful livelihood for himself and his family. However, the professional
code of conduct insists that there should be a balance between the meaningful
livelihood the professional seeks and professional ideal he seek s to uphold.
The professional code of conduct is meant to checkmate or moderate the actions
of the professional in these matters.
There is also a system of punishment for those that go against
professional code of conduct. The code of conduct serves a very important
purpose in upholding the ideals of the professions.
v
18/1/2011
A
professional is motivated by the drive of making some livelihood for himself
and his family out of his professional career. To protect the professional
values and ideals, there arises the need to set up a professional code of
conduct.
The
professional code of conduct becomes necessary when some few members of a
profession are entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding the values of
the profession to which they belong. To the professionals therefore,
professional ethics is seen as that which is used to judge when there is a
conflict between ‘what an individual holds dear and what the professional code
prescribes.
To be able
to extricate oneself from the apparent difficulty of moral dilemma arising from
professional ethics, one must act on a principle.
F
Recommended
Book: The Principle of Bioethical Ethics
[1] The client places trust in the professional on the basis that the
service provided will be of benefit to them. It would be quite possible for the
professional to use his authority to exploit the client
[2] Professionalization
is the social process by which any trade or occupation establishes the
group norms of
conduct, acceptable qualifications for membership of the profession, a professional body or association to oversee the
conduct of members of the profession, and some degree of demarcation of
the qualified from unqualified amateurs
Comments
Post a Comment