Do we need legislators and regulators to tell us to do our work with due care for those whose lives we affect in so doing?
There's a role for them, to be sure. But as you say, and as we see from the history of other disciplines, that role is generally after the fact. We can, and I think must, ourselves create professional societies which can develop codes of ethical conduct and put incentives in place to uphold them. To a certain extent, that comes after the fact, too. But we're at the very least rapidly approaching a sufficiency of horrible examples from which to derive salutary lessons. I'd like to see us develop a sense of professional culture, as an industry, which gives us to think long and cautiously in those cases where we might produce yet another.
Do we need legislators and regulators to tell us to do
our work with due care for those whose lives we affect
in so doing?
Easier to tell your boss "We have to do this the expensive quality way, because that's the law" than to tell them "We have to do it the expensive quality way, because I say so" - especially if he's used to be the one giving the orders.
> Do we need legislators and regulators to tell us to do our work with due care for those whose lives we affect in so doing?
We do, for our own protection. Doing so strikes the weapon from the hands of our managers - they can't push us into doing unethical work that easily because they know we're bound by law to refuse it. This is a case of Schelling-style strategy, where limiting your choice/freedom actually boosts your bargaining power.
There's a role for them, to be sure. But as you say, and as we see from the history of other disciplines, that role is generally after the fact. We can, and I think must, ourselves create professional societies which can develop codes of ethical conduct and put incentives in place to uphold them. To a certain extent, that comes after the fact, too. But we're at the very least rapidly approaching a sufficiency of horrible examples from which to derive salutary lessons. I'd like to see us develop a sense of professional culture, as an industry, which gives us to think long and cautiously in those cases where we might produce yet another.