Email from Torill May 5th

Dear Elisha, Hope and Gabrielle, Thanks for all your efforts and dedication in the Ethics group! I just posted Elisha's excellent work on the blog. I have also added some new links to the link collection. I've had some time to sit down today, to look back at what we have done and do a little bit of planning... I believe I may get more room for this now, as I have changed to a less demanding job :-) I see I have a lot of reading to do. BUT: I feel we are at a point where we need to involve the health promotion community. This is something most of us have brought up in our reflections. Of course, much of this will be an ongoing process with the community, but I feel we need to get feedback on the direction we should go in quite early in the process. VHPO will provide an open forum for that, but I think we should start already now by inviting some stakeholders to share their views on a few questions. This raises a few questions, which I invite you give your view on:

1. Which 5 main questions do you think we need feedback on at this stage of our work?
2. Who do you think ought to be consulted at this stage? (not names, rather types of stakeholders)
3. How should we consult them?

Would it be possible to share our response to these three questions with each other within May 16th? I must admit I'm late doing my reading of our 'common platform', but I'll do my best to catch up. Good luck to each and every one of you in your busy schedules! Torill

Report from Elisha

Background research for ISECN Ethics in Health Promotion

PART ONE
Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology)

http://ethics.iit.edu/iitcode/index.html

The website discuss how they formulated a committee and held focus groups to develop a university-wide code of ethics.
Includes a timeline of what was done and when – took 2 years to get a final version.
There is a link to ‘Code of Ethics Online’.
This is a very well organized and classified clearinghouse of over 850 codes of ethics from professional societies, corporations, government, academic institutions.
You can browse the ‘Index of Codes’, orgainised by professional category, search the codes using the Google search engine or get an alphabetical listing of the codes
Codes cover a range of topics from Engineering, finance to sport and religion.
When you search under the professional category of ‘health care’ it also includes Declarations, Policy Statements, Guidelines, Rights of various health organizations.
You can then follow each link to the particular code of ethics.
What is difficult to determine is the quality/limitations of each of the particular code of ethics. It would be useful if the website had a tool of some sort that you apply to appraise the codes as such. For example the average reader would not be able to identify whether the code is missing. Also implications of not adhering to the codes.

The website does offer these questions for reviewing codes:
Does my professional code of ethics give clear advice on this type of case?
Could someone endorsing the opposite course of action also use the code to support her choice?
Do the different guidelines within the code give conflicting guidance on this type of case, or do all guidelines point to the same outcome?
Does my professional code of ethics conflict with my own individual moral compass? Is there a way I can find a conscientious compromise?
Does a particular guideline within a professional code give acceptable guidance in one case but unacceptable guidance in another?
If my professional code gives very specific guidance, what general moral principles underlie the specific advice?
Have the framers of my professional code taken all the reasonable and likely types of cases into account before constructing the code?

It would be difficult for health promotion to use one of these codes as a model because as a clinician, for example a Counselor, it would be a condition of employment and professional registration that you abided by the code of ethics in your everyday work, with ramifications for non-adherence. This would be difficult for health promotion as there are no standards for who is a health promotion practitioner, no formal registration or even standard competencies. People and orgnaisations also ‘do’ health promotion with out realising so it would be difficult to determine who should be adhering to a code of ethics.

Contains information on ‘how to use a code of ethics’
“Codes of ethics are created in response to actual or anticipated ethical conflicts. Considered in a vacuum, many codes of ethics would be difficult to comprehend or interpret. It is only in the context of real life and real ethical ambiguity that the codes take on any meaning.
Codes of ethics and case studies need each other. Without guiding principles, case studies are difficult to evaluate and analyze; without context, codes of ethics are incomprehensible. The best way to use these codes is to apply them to a variety of situations and see what results. It is from the back and forth evaluation of the codes and the cases that thoughtful moral judgements can best arise.”

There is a section on ‘Resources for Writing a Code of Ethics’.
ONLINE :
CSEP's newsletter, Perspectives, featured a Fall 1999 issue on Writing a Code of Ethics
The Ethics Resource Center has a toolkit available for use. When used for commercial purposes, a nominal license fee is required.
Articles on Code Of Ethics, compiled by Chris MacDonald
Creating A Code Of Ethics for Your Organization, with many suggested books, by Chris MacDonald
Business for Social Responsibility's Codes of Ethics article
Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers by Carter McNamara
Developing a Code of Conduct for a Corporate Board of Directors: A Roadmap by Frank Narvan.
Interpreting Your Code article by Cornelius von Baeyer, outlining principles and approaches for using a code of ethics within an organization, with the Canadian Council for International Co-operation as the case study
Recommendations for Developing Codes of Conduct, sites from Virginia Tech
"Globalizing a Code of Ethics" by Cheryl Raven (2004), from the Ethics Resource Center.
"Guidelines for Developing Non-profit Codes" and "Implementing an Organizational Code of Ethics" by William MillerInternational Business Ethics Review , Volume 7 , Issue 1. Available thorough the the International Business Ethics Institute
Institute of Business Ethics based in the United Kingdom, has a codes of conduct page with a number of resources for developing a code of ethics for large and small businesses.
International Business Ethics Review, newsletter of the International Business Ethics Institute, has published a Winter 2004 issue (Vol. 7, #1) with a special focus on "Organizational Codes of Ethics", with suggestions on creating an effective electronic code of conduct, as well as guidelines for non-profits, among other useful articles. Also see "Writing an Effective Global Code of Conduct" by Lori Tansey Martens in Vol. 8, Issue 1 of The International Business Ethics Review.
The Journal of Mass Media Ethics offered a 2002 special issue on Codes of Ethics (link offers table of contents, with abstracts, only).
"Can You Improve your Code of Ethics?" American Society of Newspaper Editors, October 25, 2000.
"Twenty Questions to Ask about Your Code of Conduct". Joe Murphy and Win Swenson. Ethikos and Corporate Conduct Quarterly (July/August 2003).
PRINT :
Codes of Conduct for Partnership in Governance: Texts and Commentaries. Edited by Tatsuro Kunungi and Martha Schweitz, Tokyo, Japan: The United Nations University, 1999.
Creating a Workable Company Code of Ethics. Washington D.C.: Ethics Resource Center, 1990. (Second edition, 2003). Order
Fairweather, N. Ben. "No, PAPA: Why Incomplete Codes of Ethics are Worse than None at All", in Ethics in the Age of Information Technology, G. Collste, (ed). Linkoeping, Sweden: Center for Applied Ethics, Linkoeping Universitet, 2000.
Frankel, Mark S. "Professional Codes: Why, How, and with What Impact?" Journal of Business Ethics 8 (1989): 109-115.
Gaumnitz, Bruce R. and John C. Lere. "Contents of Codes of Ethics of Professional Business Organizations in the United States". Journal of Business Ethics 35.1 (January 2002): 35-49. Link to abstract
Sandra Trice Gray, CAE. "Codify Your Ethics". Association Management Pg. 288 (August 1996)
Implementation and Enforcement of Codes of Ethics in Corporations and Associations. Washington D.C.: Ethics Resource Center, 1980.
Kaptein, Muel. "Business Codes of Multinational Firms: What Do They Say?" Journal of Business Ethics 50.1 (March 2004): 13–31. Link to abstract
Kaptein, Muel and Johan Wempe. "Twelve Gordian Knots When Developing an Organizational Code of Ethics". Journal of Business Ethics 17.8 (June 1998): 853-69. Link to abstract
Molander, E. A. "A Paradigm for Design, Promulgation and Enforcement of Ethical Codes". Journal of Business Ethics 6 (November 1987): 619-626.
Tucker, Lewis, Vlasis Staghakopolous, and Charles H. Patti. "A Multidimensional Assessment of Ethical Codes: The Professional Business Association Perspective". Journal of Business Ethics 19.3 (April 1999): 287–300. Link to abstract

Includes a link to a useful bibliography with 74 references. This would be useful for us to look at more closely to identify any relevant resources.

Other Works Cited:
Davis, Michael. "Thinking like an Engineer: The Place of a Code of Ethics in the Practice of a Profession". Philosophy and Public Affairs 20.2 (1991): 150-167.
Harris, Charles E., Jr., Michael S. Pritchard and Michael J. Rabins. Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1995.
Ladd, John. "The Quest for a Code of Professional Ethics: An Intellectual and Moral Confusion". Ethical Issues in Engineering. Ed. Deborah G. Johnson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991. 130-136.
Luegenbiehl, Heinz C. "Codes of Ethics and the Moral Education of Engineers", Business and Professional Ethics Journal 2 (1983): 41-61. Rpt. in Ethical Issues in Engineering . Ed. Deborah G. Johnson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991. 137-154.


PART TWO
(Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2007)

Nuffield Council on Bioethics. (2007). Public health: ethical issues. London, UK.

This report presents an ethical framework that aims to help answer the question of when and how the Government should act on public health issues. It considers four case studies within the framework: infectious disease, obesity, smoking and alcohol (as a compare and contrast case) and community water fluoridation. Whist it does not deal explicitly with codes of ethics for health promotion as is the focus of our task – it does raise and discuss relevant ethical issues for our consideration.

Includes literature review on ‘political philosophy’ and ‘bio ethics’.
John Stuart Mill’s ‘harm principle’ is a crucial aspect of the proposed framework’.
Discusses ‘informed consent’ and ‘reducing inequalities’ as important public health ethical issues.
Presents the stewardship model:
“The concept of ‘stewardship’ is intended to convey that liberal states have a duty to look after important needs of people individually and collectively. It emphasises the obligation of states to provide conditions that allow people to be healthy and, in particular, to take measures to reduce health inequalities. The stewardship-guided state recognises that a primary asset of a nation is its health: higher levels of health are associated with greater overall well-being and productivity.”

Thoughts for code of ethics: what about media, stakeholders, policy makers, NGO’s, governments and advocacy groups? Usually involved in the health promotion work we do. If health promotion is everyone’s business – then who needs to be involved in developing a code of ethics, surely not just academics? Need a framework for developing a code of ethics first.