Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1986
Publication Information
88 W. Va. L. Rev. 623 (1986)
Abstract
Professional ethics is commonly understood as a creature of the establishment—the study of what the better doctors and lawyers do and impose on their colleagues. But this traditional notion of ethics conveys a message that professionals need only care for their clients or patients to a certain point whether it is the end of the professional’s expertise, the end of the contract or the end of an assigned task. But this ethical understanding loses the sense of professionals serving a community. This Article dissents from that common understanding of ethics and tells dissenting-professional stories that show professional ethics through the lens of friendship. The Author proposes that the ethics of friendship is more illustrative of professional ethics. A professional in a community should not provide mere expertise; rather he should be a friend to the community.
Recommended Citation
Thomas L. Shaffer,
The Ethics of Dissent and Friendship in the American Professions,
88 W. Va. L. Rev. 623 (1986).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/380
Comments
Thomas L. Shaffer, The Ethics of Dissent and Friendship in the American Professions, 88 W. Va. L. Rev. 623 (1986). Reprinted with permission.