Since its inception, PERSPECTIVES has tried to address moral issues that are of general concern, rather than those that are of interest only to the members of some particular profession. The topic of the present issue is in keeping with this aim. Here we are raising a question basic to the ethics of the legal, medical and every other profession. That is, are there moral values specific to any of the professions, which apply only to practitioners of these professions, setting their morality apart from that which applies to the rest of us?

The general question as to whether the members of the various professions are constrained by special moral norms or principles has been raised by the philosopher Alan Goldman in his book The Moral Foundations of Professional Ethics. He does not regard as a sufficient reason for holding that they are the mere fact "that the professional role involve relations with unique morally relevant features," because it may very well be that "these features can be evaluated by applying in the usual way moral principles applicable elsewhere as well."

In order for someone to be considered as acting in accordance with moral values unique to his profession, it must be the case that this person "be permitted or required to ignore or weigh less heavily what would otherwise be morally overriding considerations in the relations into which he enters as a professional." More specifically, this person's professional obligations would be taken to override what are usually held to be human rights, because this person would otherwise not be able to perform a professional function upon which society places a high moral value. Such special moral values may be found in the institution of the family, where parents enjoy a specific right to interfere with the liberty of action of their children in order to secure the latter's well-being.

For this issue of PERSPECTIVES, Alan Goldman has written an essay for us which briefly presents the position he defends in his book. We are also reprinting two reviews of his work by Professors David Luban and Kenneth Kipnis, the latter of which has been expanded from the original version.