Article review
According to Harris et al professional ethics is a complex of rules and standards developed and agreed by professionals. With this set of rules they are viewed by themselves and others as professionals and act as professionals. The professional ethics is not a moral duty therefore it is a formal code regulated by societies or association of professionals. Apart from associations code of ethics is regulated and adopted by state institutions. Codes of ethics are specially developed for the particular profession. Therefore, only relevant rules are adopted in such a code. Furthermore, professionals often have to take precedence over the personal morality to follow the professional ethics code. The conflict between personal and professional ethics is a serious problem that appears in many professional areas. For example, doctors should help every person despite its race, gender and financial status. Attorneys should take client’s case even if they believe that the claim is immoral. Engineers encounter the same problems with environmental and military issues. For example, an engineer is not allowed to develop a project, which is harmful for the nature and sustainable development according to the professional ethics code. On the other hand, an engineer may be unwilling to cooperate with military organizations despite the professional code allows this. This example demonstrates that sometimes personal morality is more restricted than professional ethics and sometimes vice versa. Harris et al believe that the conflict between personal morality and professional ethics is hard to solve. This refers to every professional area. Personal ethics should be especially given up in the case of medical and juridical services, because the responsibility of doctor and lawyer towards the patient is higher than the personal responsibility.
