Ethics

So, ethics have always held an interesting place in my life.  The very notion of ethics is one that I've often been challenged by in a thought provoking way.   The essence that one should govern his actions by an unflappable standard rather than by the actions, acceptance or tolerance of those around surrounding them.  I believe that the ideology of ethics is highly compatible with the Judeo-Christian tradition even though it ostensibly strikes me as incongruent.  

I say that the first impression seems incongruent because I think that we look to the Bible to have an answer for all of our problems and dilemmas, and the concept of a code of ethics is to put in place a framework above and beyond our sacred text.  God created Man with the capabilities of logic and reason and within an innate moral scale that can measure out what seems just, though all too often we fail at meting it out.  I firmly believe that poring over the Bible will point to resolutions in everyday dilemmas that are bigger than an historical context, but primarily as a mechanism to better understand the spirit and teachings of God/Jesus, thereby glimpsing how better to apply their "heart" and perspective to our lives. 

The Bible doesn't address dentistry, however the Code of Ethics for dentists has many well reasoned safeguards for the profession and I feel obligated to abide by them.  Not only because they make sense, but also through a sense of duty because it is right.

This thought kind of popped into my head as I was reflecting on 2 Corinthians 10 or 11 and how it encourages us not to compare ourselves to others.  We should be concerned for others for their own sake, not our own.  The more highly developed and educated professions become, the more they are concerned with imposing self-governance or ethics.  They feel it appropriate to place the burden of behavior among the practitioners to enforce it among themselves, I find this ironic given that Christianity set the same precedent several thousand years ago and is often viewed as outdated and irrelevant by the supposed professionals whose moral compass is becoming more closely calibrated toward a more ideal starting point of moral constancy.

Anyhow, this posting is rather scatterbrained on account of my having lots of thoughts on this particular subject matter which I'm sure I'll address later on.  One other impetus for me to create a blog post is that I have undertaken to write a paper highlighting an ethical issue relevant today in the dental world.  In short, it will address how I think that dentists that practice strictly cosmetic/aesthetic dentistry are behaving unethically from the standpoint of the hundreds of counties in the US that are without any dentists at all.  They might be doing good by helping people feel better about themselves, but they could be doing best by being health care providers to the needy.   

In the words of Jonathon Murfee, "Should you be doing what's good, or what's best?"  As Christians we are called to do what's best, as health care providers we are as well.