>!. It is necessary that every profession has an enforced code of ethics,
>though sometimes the code is too narrow or too wide. At the moment I am
>thinking of, in medicine here in Ontario, that properly qualified medical
>doctors are not allowed to use methods used successfully in Europe. In
>Europe homeopathic medicine may be used, of course provide you have a
>medical degree, and have taken years of study after your degree in
>homeopathy. I am 73 years of age, and my grandparents were using
>homeopathy allready. When in many families children died due to the
>"Spanish" influenza epidemy around 1920 (I don't know the proper name of
>the sickness,) none of his family was dying. It was always said to be
>because of the homeopathic medicine.
Good story, excellent point. As presently devised, codes of ethics
are frequently inadequate, primarily because they are so broad and
non-specific in what they address, but also because they too often fail to
keep up with changes in the profession. All professions mature over time,
as the pressures of new discoveries, new technologies, and richer
understandings of nature emerge. But codes of ethics tend to be treated as
fixed barometers, and are revamped only intermittently. There is value is
such stability, certainly, but the downside is that the moral framework of a
profession can periodically stand athwart new insights and new techniques.
>2. No matter what professional code exists, my religious, Christian
>convictions will overrule any contradiction which might exist between the
>two. Now I am thinking again of the field of medicine, where in some
>places abortions may be requested in a hospital. As a Christian I would
>refuse, unless certain circumstances require a very difficullt decision,
>like for example choosing between mother or child.
A physician could, of course, invoke the traditional principles of
medical practice, as exhibited in the Hippocratic oath, which specifically
forbids abortions. It's not necessary for a physician to have recourse to
Christian convictions in order to do this. And when faced with very
difficult decisions, it seems likely to me that Christian convictions will
not provide as much specific guidance as will the traditional norms and
standards of the practice itself.
Tom Pearson
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____________________________________________________________________________
Thomas D. Pearson
Department of History & Philosophy
The University of Texas-Pan American
Edinburg, Texas
e-mail: pearson@panam1.panam.edu