The Nature of Morality and Its Implications for Chiropractic Educators in Ethics

Abstract

It is well known that chiropractic colleges teach ethics and professional responsibility to chiropractic students. Casual observation shows faculty members and college administrators share frustration over the anxiety and hours of work devoted to students that violate these expectations. Although it is clear that chiropractic students are taught to behave in an ethical manner, on what moral ground is this message given? The answer to this question is currently unknown. This article compares ethical relativism, the notion that there are no universal moral principles that transcend culture and personal interpretations, with ethical objectivism, the philosophical opposite of relativism. It seems that if chiropractic educators are to insist on ethical behavior, an understanding of these two ethical theories is necessary for explaining why students ought to behave in certain ways. Since objectivism seems to be the superior ethical system, codes of ethics based on objectivism carry more force than just institutional power, giving students immersed in relativism prior to chiropractic college a robust reason why they ought to be ethical. (J Chiro Humanities 2004;11:11-23)