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Abstract
I want to present a case that the health care professions should understand and use their codes of ethics as descriptions not only of the professional characteristics necessary to fulfill the care for people (which is the moral purpose of medicine), but also of the kind of person who can perform and persevere as a caregiver in a tragic profession. The various codes of ethics depict morally lofty professionals who are concerned with the honor and integrity of their professions as well as the well-being and dignity of their patients. Yet, it is possible within each dimension of health care that persons devoted to their respective codes experience untended and grievous results in their practices. We should not look at the codes as though they safeguard practitioners from such results. Rather, we should see them as the expectations upon people who remain committed to health care, even while suffering undesired losses in practicing it.
The Crisis in Codes of Ethics
Talk of the crisis in codes of ethics has become commonplace. Such codes are said to be ineffective, little understood or used, and not nearly as influential as one's own personal values. For instance, in 2009 D.C. Mal lory, P. Sevigny, et al. questioned eleven focus groups of physicians in six culturally different countries concerning their perceptions of their profession's code of ethics. The findings were not optimistic about the influence of the codes. They state,
Two findings were particularly interesting. The first was the apparent emphasis placed on personal values and the perceived impact of culture on the interpretation of these codes. The second was that at no time did any of the respondents from these international focus groups put forward the view that their specific medical code of ethics, in particular, was helpful in clarifying the unknown or ambiguous - at best, medical ethics codes were tolerated, as they did not seem to interfere with the predetermined ethical intent of the physician.
This lack of effectiveness on the part of the physicians' code does not lead Mallory, Sevigny, et al. to conclude that the physicians are not interested in ethical guidelines, however. In fact, they find that physicians looking for ways to explain and justify their actions appeal to the ethical...