Professionalism and Ethics in Chemistry

Common morality and ethical theory are universal. Not only do they provide the standards of conduct that we expect all rational persons to follow, but also they provide the basis for professional ethics, the special rules of conduct adhered to by those engaged in pursuits ordinarily called professions, such as law, medicine, engineering, and science. Although common morality and ethical theory are general, professional ethics is specific. Legal ethics applies only to lawyers (and no one else); scientific ethics applies only to scientists. Professional ethics is consistent with common morality, but goes beyond it. Professional ethics governs the interactions among professionals, and between professionals and society (Callahan 1988). In many cases, it requires a higher standard of conduct than is expected of those outside the profession, but the norms of professional ethics must be consistent with common morality. To understand professional ethics, it is necessary to understand the concept of a profession (Davis 1998). A profession is more than a group of people engaged in a common occupation for which they are paid. While there are a variety of ways to define a profession, I use a social contract approach, which I have found to be most useful in my thinking about professional ethics. In this view, a profession derives from two bargains or contracts: one internal and one external. The internal bargain governs the interactions among members of the profession while the external bargain defines the relationship of the profession to society. Both, however, are based on a moral ideal of service around which the profession is organized (Davis 1987). For lawyers, the ideal is justice under law. For physicians, the ideal is curing the sick, protecting patients from disease, and easing the pain of the dying. As Michael Davis has argued, these moral ideals go beyond the demands of ordinary morality, the requirements of law, and the pressures of the market. Using a moral ideal as the fundamental basis of the profession comes from the old- fashioned idea of a profession as a calling.