Ethical Codes
Awareness of ethical codes is crucial, but formal codes cannot take the place of an active, thoughtful, creative approach to our ethical responsibilities.
Ethical intelligence is intelligent ethics, informed by pouring over the ethics codes that bear on our work. But formal standards and guidelines are no substitute for an active, deliberative, and creative approach to our ethical responsibilities. Codes prompt, guide, and inform our ethical consideration; they do not shut it down or take its place. Ethical intelligence never allows us to follow a code in a rote, thoughtless manner. Each new client, whatever his or her similarities to previous clients, is unique. Each situation is unique and constantly changing– time and events never stand still. Our theoretical orientation, our community and the client’s community, our culture and the client’s culture, and so many other contexts shape what we see and what we make of what we see. Each ethical choice must take these contexts into account. Codes can steer us away from clearly unethical approaches. They can shine a light on key values and concerns. But they cannot tell us what form these values and concerns will take. Standards and guidelines can set forth essential tasks or point to aspirational goals, but they never show us the best way to carry out those tasks and realize those goals with a unique client facing unique problems in a specific time and place with limited resources. Ethical decision making is a process and codes are only one part of that process.
