Interest in professional ethics among Soviet scholars and philosophers began early in the 70's, the result of a scientific and technological revolution which, for example, improved professional skill, enhancing responsibility for effects of professional activities. At that time, the status of professional ethics was broadly discussed in the USSR and, as a result, there developed moral norms and principles regulating professional activities. Among the professions involved were medicine, pedagogics, science, engineering, management, journalism, and consumer service. Now, professional ethics is obligatory in training of proper specialists in Soviet universities and colleges.

Medical Ethics. The main principles of Soviet medical ethics are more than a century old. Russian physicians like M.J. Mudrov, S.P Botkin, F.F. Erisman, and N.I. Pirogov had set out-and their recent followers, like N.N. Blochin, N.N. Petrov, and U.A. Aleksandrowski, developed -the major moral demands of a physician. These are mercy, unselfishness, readiness to give aid at any time, keeping a medical secret, civility, and respect for every patient.

In 1971 the text of an oath for Soviet physicians was approved. It includes the doctor's traditional duties but adds responsibilities for diagnosis and medical prescriptions. In consequence, the chief medical errors now include: a) incomplete and imperfect examination of a patient; b) denying a patient's, or the family's, request for counseling with other medical experts; and c) mere informing instead of getting the patient's consent to an operation. The major moral principle is that a remedy should not be more dangerous for a patient than the disease is. Thus, any clinical experiments are inadmissible without being necessitated.

Scientific and technical progress raises new problems of (what Soviets call) "deontology." For example, introduction of computer systems in medicine influences keeping a medical secret, because some medical data which are of great importance for the patient may become available to staff, like programmers, who are morally not responsible to the patient.

A number of deontological problems are engendered by gene engineering, transplantation of organs, "artificial organs," and so on. The problem of euthanasia is also discussed in Soviet deontology. A solution of some problems in deontology (for example, preparing the patient for death or the doctor's attitude towards an abortion) seem partly to depend on developing a new (for the USSR) branch of applied ethics-bioethics.

Pedagogical Ethics. The history of Russian (Soviet) pedagogical ethics is closely associated with works of famous educators like K.D. Ushinski, A.S. Makarenko, and V.A. Suchomlinski. K.D. Ushinski (1824-1870) thought that love of children was the major moral principle for educators, and argued against formation of particular rules for a teacher's behavior. It would be more important for teachers, he believed, to study the psychological laws of those events which they would want to control, and to act as circumstances made appropriate.

A.S. Makarenko (1888-1939) thought educational success necessitated keeping unity between the teachers' collective's demands and actions, and striving for mutual understanding between teachers and students. V.A. Suchomlinski (1918-197o) defended a set of humanistic principles of mutual understanding between teachers and students: a) inadmissibility of harming student's dignity; b) respect for the student's personality; c) tolerance of other people's views (including the students' views) and patience in arguing a student out of an opinion; d) not betraying the student's confidence; and e) encouraging the student's moral empathy.

For contemporary Soviet pedagogical ethics, the important problem is to educate teachers, parents, and heads of various departments to be educators. The task of education ethics is to ground the choice of educational ends and means in recent humanistic values.

The formation of a new moral-pedagogical paradigm lags behind the changes that have recently taken place in the Soviet educational system. What should teachers do under the new circumstances? For example, as a result of the 1984 school reforms, more than half of all students have been transferred from schools of general education to vocational schools. This transfer means early professionalism for children as young as 13-14 years old and, therefore, to a decrease in their intellectual training and level of culture. While the official purpose of Soviet pedagogics is still to educate well rounded and harmoniously developed persons, that cannot be achieved under the circumstances. This contradiction invites students to be skeptical or nihilistic about the value of becoming a cultured person. Yet, teachers are not ready to accept a different model of education.

Some philosophical studies of urgent problems of pedagogical ethics have been done in places like Vladimir (U.V. Sogomonov) and Leningrad (Y.G. Yackubson, L.A. Gromova). The main results are regularly discussed at the All-Union Symposium on professional ethics that is held once every two years in Vladimir.

The revival of interest in professional culture during the 70's led to formation of centers for ethical counseling and business games where practical recommendations on moral problem-solving and on moral decision-making in conflict situations are elaborated, and managers and heads of industrial bodies are trained. One of the first of these centers was orgainzed by V.I. Bakchtanowski in Siberia. Such centers stimulate the development of a management ethics that seeks to find practical solutions to such moral problems as: What should a person expecting to hold a good post do if the post is suddenly given to somebody else? Can one control the growing metastases of bureaucracy through moral means?

Ethics in Engineering and Science. The moral norms regulating an engineer's or scientist's professional activities are much the same, because in both fields the major moral standard is generally thought to be the ability to foresee direct and global consequences of one's technical work so as not to harm human beings or the environment. Some other questions discussed in this branch of professional ethics are the following: To what extent do scientific discoveries and industrial introduction of them depend on a single person? Could a single person influence collective decisions approved by the majority in science or industry? How could one prevent some collective decision with which one disagreed?

Other Fields of Ethics. Today, many moral demands of professional activities have changed as a result of the radical transformations in Soviet politics, economics, military strategy, and so on. The moral norms of various professions have become more humanistic. Thus, military ethics seeks new means for settlement of the moral conflicts engendered by the "Afghan Syndrome" (like the "Vietnam Syndrome" of the 70's in the USA).

The latest spheres of application of Soviet professional ethics are politics and business. To involve the masses of people in professional political activity, as a result of recent democratization in the USSR, it will be necessary to develop a parliamentarian's moral code and to work out the moral norms and values regulating the activity of deputies.

Until recently, the lack of any free enterprise in the USSR meant that the possibilities of ethical regulation of business relationships were not appreciated. But now, the situation is changing. Management schools are being organized in Moscow, Leningrad, and other places. A course in "Ethics and Psychology of Business Behavior" is included in the training curriculum of proper schools and centers. Progressive methods of business ethics study in developed countries (including the USA) may be very useful for developing the moral culture of business relations in the USSR. The growing humanization of human relations in the whole world raises substantially the status of professional ethics, which gives, in turn, hope for developing international scientific cooperation in this field.