We should leave room for the exercise of both personal freedom and professional conscience. Issues about private conscience in professional life are notoriously complex. How far should we allow private conscience to guide professional conduct when it departs from the moral consensus expressed in the relevant code of ethics. These issues are the primary topic of most debates about professional ethics in the courts, classrooms, and professional societies. We all agree, for example, that college professors should have great freedom to express their views.
Academic freedom is central to what college professors are supposed to be.
The professor is wrong, of course. Here, I think, a code of ethics is essential in setting and enforcing standards-even though codes are always vague and incomplete. Issues of conscience are also connected with the meaning and requirements of professional distance. I turn now to the more positive side of character, the aspiration to do more than meet the profession's minimum standard. We want practitioners who have been drawn into their profession by a deeply-felt commitment to its ideals.