>The sub-headline on this article was disturbing. I don't have it in
>front of me, but the gist was that he was "keeping his religion from
>interfering with his work" or something to that effect. Such phrasing
>implies a compartmentalization of life that most of us would find
>unacceptable.
>
>Fortunately, the article itself did not imply that for the most part. It
>portrayed a Christian living an integrated life, and whose faith
>"interfered" with his work by making him conscientious and sensitive to
>ethical issues. So, as long as people actually read the article rather
>than skimming the headline, it will make a good witness.
I find these comments puzzling, but I may have misunderstood their
intent, so I'm asking for help.
I work and teach in the area of professional ethics, and my own
judgment on this matter is rather different. I have grown convinced over
the years that when professionals -- in whatever field, scientific or
otherwise -- try to import their own personal, privately-held ethics into a
professional context, it serves them very poorly. This appears to be the
case regardless of the source of the personal ethics, whether it comes from
cultural norms, family values, or religious principles. A sense of
professional identity, and a commitment to standards of excellence which
obtain within the specific profession, seems to be a far more reliable
ethical guide than does, for instance, any religious commitment.
I'm currently engaged in a funded research project to examine the
way in which biomedical researchers in the pharmaceutical industry render
moral decisions in the workplace. I can't say a great deal about the
project at this point, but I can tell you this much. I conduct interviews
with professionals, present them with a pair of simulated situations, and
ask them questions about how they would respond in each. In a staggering
majority of the cases, those who have previously identified the source of
their ethical reflections as being "religious" (usually, Christian) are
extremely uncertain how to proceed in an ethically congested situation in a
professional context (this is also true for those who claim cultural norms,
or family values, as their source). Those, however, who rely on standards
of conduct that are specific to the particular profession in which they
operate are better able to discern appropriate ethical responses. In short,
the more that professional biomedical researchers are able to separate their
professional ethics from their personal ethics when operating in the
workplace, the less likely there is to be moral failure.
I confess that this was not what I originally expected (or hoped,
frankly) to find when I began this study. This is only preliminary, and
I've much more work to do, but I am struck by the consistency of the
responses. I teach a large number of engineering students each semester,
and I'm now encouraging them to "bracket" their religiously-based ethical
principles whenever they are functioning a professional, in favor of relying
on the standards of conduct and professional excellence that are inherent in
the professional practice itself. There are still problems, of course. It
would help enormously, in my judgment, if the various Codes of Ethics (and
more than 90% of corporations, institutions and professional associations in
the U.S. now have them) were more sharply focused, and articulated more
clearly what the professional standards are within each practice -- and then
enforced them.
The treatment of religiously-grounded ethics as inadequate to
address the range of complex technical issues that professionals encounter
daily is not likely to be a popular approach with many on this list, I fear.
But I'm convinced that the development of models for helping professionals
-- in science, engineering, communications, business, medicine, law, and the
like -- make sound moral judgments in these circumstances is vitally
important. And, so far as I can tell, traditional "Christian ethics" simply
does not equip folks working in these domains adequately for making those
judgments.
I would be interested in hearing what those of you on this list
actually do in ethically conflicted situations in your professional
contexts. What resources do you draw on? How do make these decisions?
Tom Pearson
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Thomas D. Pearson
Department of History & Philosophy
The University of Texas-Pan American
Edinburg, Texas
e-mail: pearson@panam1.panam.edu