Ethic of service

By Mukul Sharma

Ethics is derived from morality but, still, it’s not so simple because one keeps hearing about what’s ethically correct or not. Ethically correct behaviour is, thus, generally morally correct behaviour, but not necessarily so. There may occasionally be a situation where adecision is ethically correct but morally wrong. Yes, ethics is obtained from what human philosophy has decided whereas morals are more likely seen as divinely ordained.

Consider this. You have an appointment with your physician but are not able to make it. Would he be correct to charge you for it? After all, there was an unsaid contractual agreement for you to adhere to, and that you didn’t could mean he was deprived of an earning that he may have got from another patient. And, yet, he had to sit twiddling his thumbs.

Prima facie it appears the physician would be justified. But what if you couldn’t make it because either you got stuck in an interminable traffic jam and didn’t have your cell phone charged to make a call? Or, worse still, had an accident and had to be wheeled away from the scene. Should you have to pay for not going to the physician’s appointment? It suddenly looks like you shouldn’t, but consider the doctor’s view too: why should he lose business because of something beyond his control?

Finally, this is what it comes down to: when the external prohibition is attributed to divinity, it is encompassed in the moral codes of religious organisations, but when the prohibitions are part of an occupational or professional code of conduct, then it’s generally called ethics.