Unit 4: Professional and Media Ethics

The moral duties of specialized roles in society.

1. Nature of Professional Ethics
2. Medical Ethics: The Four Pillars
3. Confidentiality and Informed Consent
4. Media Ethics: Truth and Privacy
5. Exam Focus: Case Studies

1. Nature of Professional Ethics

Professional ethics refers to the ethical principles that govern the behavior of people in a professional environment (doctors, lawyers, journalists). Unlike general ethics, it focuses on Role-Differentiated Morality—the idea that a professional has duties that an ordinary person might not have (e.g., a lawyer defending a guilty client).

2. Medical Ethics: The Four Pillars

In bioethics and medical practice, four core principles guide healthcare providers. These were popularized by Beauchamp and Childress:

Principle	Meaning
Autonomy	Respecting the patient's right to make their own healthcare decisions.
Beneficence	The duty to act in the best interest of the patient (Doing good).
Non-maleficence	The duty to "Do No Harm."
Justice	Fairness in the distribution of healthcare resources.

3. Confidentiality and Informed Consent

Informed Consent

This is the legal and ethical requirement that a patient must be fully informed about the risks, benefits, and alternatives of a treatment before they agree to it. It protects Autonomy.

Confidentiality

The moral obligation to keep a patient's or client's information private. It can only be broken if there is a "duty to warn" (e.g., if the patient intends to harm others).

4. Media Ethics

Media ethics deals with the ethical dilemmas faced by journalists and advertisers. The central tension is often between the Right to Know (Public interest) and the Right to Privacy.

Accuracy and Objectivity: The duty to report the truth without bias.

Sensationalism: The ethical problem of exaggerating stories to gain viewers (Yellow Journalism).

Conflict of Interest: When a journalist’s personal interests interfere with their professional duty.

Social Responsibility: The idea that the media should work toward the betterment of society, not just profit.

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