Moral Responsibility in Professional Ethics

Professionals generally acknowledge gravely that they shoulder special responsibilities, and believe that they should conform to “higher” ethical standards than laypersons.2 Yet, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and indeed all other types of professionals also claim special warrant for engaging in some activities that, were they performed by others, would be likely to draw moral censure.3 Skeptical of this claim to special license, Macaulay asked about lawyers (and most of my examples in this essay shall be drawn from law since that’s where my experience lies), “[w]hether it be right that a man should, with a wig on his head, and a band round his neck, do for a guinea what, without these appendages, he would think it wicked and infamous to do for an empire.”4 This conflict may trouble the layperson, but for the professional who must come to grips with his or her professional responsibilities it is especially problematic.

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[12]  G. Haydon.  On Being Kesponsible , 1978 .

[13]  C. Fried.  The Lawyer as Friend: The Moral Foundations of the Lawyer-Client Relation , 1976 .

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[17]  B. Williams.  Politics and moral character , 1978 .

[18]  S. Hampshire.  Two Theories Of Morality , 1978 .

[19]  M. Freedman.  Personal Responsibility in a Professional System , 1978 .

[20]  Charles P. Curtis.  The Ethics of Advocacy , 1951 .

[21]  S. Milgram.  Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View , 1975 .

[22]  William H. Simon.  The Ideology of Advocacy: Procedural Justice and Professional Ethics , 1978 .