Abstract
This article points out how far-reaching the changes in our public life would actually have to be if we wanted to avoid paternalism altogether. For example, the widespread view that only a physician with training at a recognized institution should be allowed to perform surgery or that only an educated lawyer may provide legal council is clearly paternalistic. In fact, many professional regulations, not just in medicine and law, but also in engineering and many other areas of expertise, have a strongly paternalistic function. Moreover, this problem is located in a sphere that is neither clearly private, nor seems to be part of a state-legislated public sphere. Professional organizations are neither governments, nor necessarily democratic, but they are often state-certified and produce binding regulations for issues of public interest. The author bites the bullet and accepts professional paternalism, while insisting that special care should be placed on how to design an appropriate professional code of conduct.
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Notes
I have analyzed these matters at some length in Ethics and Professionalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988).
The Moral Foundations of Professional Ethics (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1980), pp. 2–3.
The term ‘profession’ designates a standard category of occupations in sociology and law. Monopoly over services is one of the criteria for membership in the technical category.
Provided by the American Bar Association in its Model Rules of Professional Conduct.
The norms used by many boards are found in the NCEE’s Model Rules of Conduct, which comprise for the most part enforceable parts of the National Association of Professional Engineers’ Code of Ethics.
I have published two papers on professionalism in the military, “Military as Profession” in An Encyclopedia of War and Ethics, ed. Donald Wells (Westport CN: Greenwood Press, 1996) and “Managing Violence Under Military Professionalization” in Institutional Violence, ed. by Dean Curtin and Robert Litke (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999).
In Intervention and Autonomy: Parentalism and the Caring Life (Oxford University Press, 1995) I suggest the term ‘parentalism’ for the treatment of adults as if they were children since the way a mother treats her children can be as inappropriate as the way a father does. This suggestion has not taken hold.
Some of this history has been traced by Magali Sarfatti Larson in The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis (University of California Press, 1979). I propose some ethical norms for professionals in Ethics and Professionalism.
Jane Clapp includes 191 codes of organized groups in her Professional Ethics and Insignia (Metuchen NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1974) and Rena A. Gorlin in her Codes of Professional Responsibility (2nd Ed.; Washington DC: The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., 1986) lists some 35 that are devoted to business, medicine and the law, in addition to those of the American Medical Association and American Bar Association. The assumption in both of these compendia is that an ethical code is a mark of a true profession and the code accurately describes the way true professionals do their work.
The professional ideology is the complex of ideas about the nature and services which a profession conveys to the world through its public outlets. I have argued that professional codes are important ideological documents as well as (often weak) guides to conduct in “The Ideological Use of Professional Codes” in Business and Professional Ethics Journal, I, 3 (1982), pp. 53–69. This is reprinted in Ethical Issues in Professional Life, ed. by Joan C. Callahan (Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 411–421 and Ethics, Information and Technology, ed. by Richard N. Stichler and Robert Hauptman (MacFarland, 1998), pp. 273–290. I analyze the functions of professional codes at greater length in Ethics and Professionalism.
References
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Goldman A (1980) The moral foundations of professional ethics. Rowman & Little field Publishers, Totowa
Gorlin RA (1986) Codes of professional responsibility, 2nd edn. The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington DC
Kultgen J (1982) The ideological use of professional codes. Business and Professional Ethics Journal I(3):53–69, reprinted in Callahan JC (ed) (1988) Ethical Issues in Professional Life. Oxford University Press, pp 411–421 and in by Stichler RN, Hauptman R (1998) Ethics, Information and Technology. MacFarland, pp 273–290
Kultgen J (1988) Ethics and professionalism. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
Kultgen J (1995) Intervention and autonomy: Parentalism and the caring life. Oxford University Press, New York
Kultgen J (1996) Military as profession. In: Wells D (ed) An encyclopedia of war and ethics. Greenwood Press, Westport
Kultgen J (1999) Managing violence under military professionalization. In: Curtin D, Litke R (eds) Institutional violence. Rodopi, Amsterdam
Larson MS (1979) The rise of professionalism: A sociological analysis. University of California Press, Berkeley
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Kultgen, J. Professional Paternalism. Ethic Theory Moral Prac 17, 399–412 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-013-9451-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-013-9451-2