J7ournal
of
medical
ethics,
I980,
6,
33-34
Words
Ethics,
morals
and
moral
philosophy
R
S
Downie
Department
of
Moral
Philosophy,
University
of
Glasgow
Many
scientists
and
men
of
action
have
little
sympathy
with
discussions
of
words,
regarding
all
such
as
easy
to
settle
-
'Look
it
up
in
the
dictionary
!'
-
or
as
trivial
-
'Just
word-chopping!.'
But
disputes
about
words
cannot
always
be
settled
so
easily,
since
dictionaries
may
well
just
record
the
ambigui-
ties
which
have
occasioned
the
disputes;
and
they
are
often
anything
but
trivial,
since
the
meanings
we
attach
to
words
certainly
influence,
and
may
even
determine,
our
perceptions
of
the
world
or
our
values.
Indeed,
in
some
cases
there
is
no
clear
distinction
between
changing
one's
view
on
the
meanings
of
words
and
changing
one's
view
of
the
facts.
These
points
are
illustrated
by
the
confusions
surrounding
the
words
'ethics'
and
'morals'
as
these
words
are
used
in
medical
discussion.
Ethics
and
morals
The
first
use
of
'ethics'
we
shall
note
is
that
in
which
it
is
synonymous
with
'morals'.
In
this
sense
of
the
term
an
'ethical
judgement'
is
the
judgement
of
an
ordinary
moral
agent
about
moral
right
and
wrong,
or
about
what
someone
morally
ought
or
ought
not
to
do,
or
about
whether
or
not
someone
behaved
fairly,
or
about
whether
or
not
someone
is
a
morally
good
person.
In
this
sense
we
might
say
that
a
certain
question
is
a
matter
of
ethics,
rather
than
of
politics.
But
if
'ethics'
and
'morals'
can
be
co-extensive
in
their
areas
of
application
there
are
also,
secondly,
uses
of
'ethics'
and
'morals'
in
terms
of
which
they
refer
to
roughly
distinguishable
areas
within
'ethics'
or
'morals'
in
the
first
sense.
Thus,
in
popular
speech
the
term
'morals'
has
become
narrowed
to
matters
of
sexual
behaviour,
whereas
high-minded
people
who
are
aware
that
there
are
problems
of
conduct
other
than
sexual
ones
have
pre-empted
the
word
'ethics'
to
refer
to
them.
In
terms
of
this
distinction
we
find
that
the
politician
who
tells
us
lies
is
deemed
(if
caught
at
it)
'unethical',
whereas
his
mistress
who
is
caught
at
it
(no
need
to
say
what)
is
deemed
to
have
'loose
morals'.
In
short,
'ethics'
and
'morals'
can
refer
to
two
different
areas
of
ordinary
morality
in
the
first
sense.
Professional
ethics
Different
again,
thirdly,
and
of
greatest
interest
to
the
medical
profession,
is
the
use
of
'ethics'
in
the
expression
'professional
ethics',
of
which
medical
ethics
is
an
important
branch.
All
codes
of
pro-
fessional
ethics
embody
three
main
components:
a)
standards
of
professional
competence;
b)
standards
of
professional
integrity;
c)
accepted
professional
procedures,
or,
in
a
broad
sense,
'etiquette'.
A
professional
code
of
this
sort
can
acquire
the
force
of
moral
imperatives
in
our
first
sense.
Indeed,
some
professional
roles,
and
particularly
medical
ones, are
such
that
a
person
can
identify
his
whole
personality
with
them.
For
such
a
person,
to
be
a
moral
being
just
is
to
be
a
doctor,
nurse,
or
whatever,
where
these
roles
are
defined
by
the
current
ethics
of
the
profession.
The
moral
duties
of
life
which
are
for
most
people
diffused
over
many
areas
and
activities
have
for
the
dedicated
doctor
a
sharper
focus,
and
insofar
as
they
are
more
sharply
defined
they
can
have
a
degree
of
strength
which
outweighs
all
other
claims
on
him.
Seen
in
this
way
professional
ethics
are
a
source
of
inspiration,
and
a
profession
becomes
a
vocation
or
a
calling.
Professional
ethics
can
thus
be
ordinary
morality
at
its
finest,
and
the
third
sense
of
'ethics'
becomes
a
specialised
case
of
the
first.
Codified
procedures
and
ethics
It
is
possible,
however,
and
perhaps
it
is
not
uncommon,
for
the
institutional
side
to
professional
ethics
to
become
dominant.
When
that
happens
the
emphasis
is
placed
on
professional
procedures,
procedures
which
may
of
course
be
justified
but
can
seem
artificial
or
just
plain
comic,
as
when
it
is
a
matter
of
precedence
in
the
ward
round.
This
gives
us
a
fourth
sense
of
'ethics',
when
the
term
acquires
a
specific
content
which
refers
to
codified
procedures,
but
lacks
the
prescriptive
force
of
morality.
An
example
of
'ethics'
used
in
this
descriptive,
pro-
cedural
sense
can
be
found
in
the
reaction
of
the
Ethical
Committee
of
the
British
Medical
Associa-
tion
to
the
virginity
tests
alleged
to
have
been
carried
out
on
Asian
immigrant
women
at
Heathrow
Airport.
A
spokesman
for
the
BMA
is
reported
as
having
said
that
while
such
tests
may
have
been
morally
wrong
there
was
nothing
unethical
about
them."
Presumably
the
meaning
of
this
is
that
there
