What Are Professional Ethics?

Doctors have to obey a very strict code of ethics.

The term professional ethics describes a set of desired conduct in a specific profession. Not all professions have their own code of ethics, whereas there are jobs that are difficult to imagine without one. Usually professions in which people could potentially abuse their knowledge or position against the public good have a code of professional ethics. Disobeying or abusing the rules of professional ethics can sometimes result in the termination of rights to practice that profession.

Business Ethics

Business ethics is part of the code of conduct of individuals as well as organizations in the business environment. It's mostly seen as a set of unwritten rules that guides businesspeople and companies in finding an acceptable balance of profit maximization, human rights and benefits to the local community. Businesses are always expected to behave in a way that benefits their employees as well as their community.

Medical Ethics

The field of medicine gets its code of ethics from the Hippocratic Oath, which describes the basic rules of the profession. Before they can practice medicine, doctors have to swear to the oath. Breaching these rules can get a doctor permanently suspended from medicine. For example, it's not ethical to prescribe drugs that will kill people, even if they ask for them, to force treatment on patients who refused it or to share information about patients.

Legal Ethics

State governments and judicial systems adopt and oversee the legal ethics codes for specific states. There can be minor differences in legal ethics between states, but the basic rules apply everywhere. For example, the conversations between lawyers and their clients are always confidential, a lawyer is always obliged to present only truthful facts in court and in testimony, and working on cases in which a lawyer's professional independence might be questioned is never allowed.

Journalistic Ethics

Reporters and journalists also have an ethical responsibility to the public, because they select and present information. According to journalistic ethics, journalists are required always to report the truth, as well as always to be accurate, objective, fair and impartial. For example, journalistic ethics suggests that certain names, like the names of children or crime victims, shouldn't be mentioned in public reports. Journalists also have an ethical responsibility to each other, and that is to respect each other's work and never to plagiarize.

References

• Institute of Business Ethics: What are Professional Ethics?
• Medicine Online: Medical Ethics for Student Doctors
• BBC; A Guide to the Hipocratic Oath; Daniel Sokol; October 2008.
• Research Wire: A Web of Legal Ethics: Rules of Professional Conduct
• Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen; Global Journalism Ethics; Stephen J. A. Ward.