Ethics and Protections for Learned Professionals

Learned professionals such as lawyers, scientists, physicians, licensed engineers, librarians and professors need a centralized protection for their speeches and actions. There is a wide array of California employee rights that reserve the rights of workers. It is in spite of whether they work for the government or employed by private sectors, both profit and non-profit organizations.

Aside from their duties of being loyal to their clients or employers, learned professionals have ethical obligations that must be followed.

Attorneys have several kinds of obligations under the Rules of Professional Conduct that are implemented and reinforced by each state’s bar. However, such obligations need independent and personal judgment. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires that lawyers must first make an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances and not delude the court about the fact or law. Such personal
obligation to be honest pertains to the submission of any legal paper to the court.

Licensed engineers have to abide the Code of Ethics set by the National Society of Professional Engineers. Meanwhile, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers also has Code of Ethics specifically significant to electrical engineers who do not hold license of the profession, a situation that is applicable to engineers who work in either improvement of new products or applied
research. The Association for Computing Machinery, on the other hand, also has Code of Ethics for computer programmers and those working in information technology.

Scientists’ ethical codes are developed by non-profit organization that is not managed by the government since they are not licensed by the government. Like other learned professional, scientists have to abide several rulings. Examples are Chemist’s Code of Conduct courtesy of the American Chemical Society; Ethical
Guidelines by the American Mathematical Society; Guidelines for Professional Conduct by the American Physical Society.

Physicians have to follow the American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics as it is used as the basis for licensure of doctors by the states. Examples
of this are Physicians should: not offer unnecessary services, should regulate confidentiality of care given to patients and require informed consent for therapy.


Librarians have to abide the Code of Ethics implemented by the American Library Association.

Professors have to often follow the rules, regulations and policies set by the administering school that they are working in. However, there are some professors who do not follow such, instead, follow the humanistic ethics which
often leads to practicing the profession in a more respective way. The ethics of professors strongly depends on their capability to deal with their colleagues,
students, superiors and other members of the academe.