Professional Accountability and Responsibility

Professionals have a responsibility to serve the society diligently. That is the reasons why we have set rules and regulation or standard of ethics that govern their various fields of work (Wueste, 1994. The question of whether some professions should be held at higher standards of legal accountability and responsibility is controversial with each side having its own advantages and disadvantages. Certainly, some professions should be held at higher standards of legal accountability and responsibility as opposed to others.

Some professions deal with human life directly and therefore the cost or risks posed by their mistakes are too high and/or painful to bear (Judith, 2004). It is the responsibility of any government to protect and honor the lives of its people and therefore any mistake that can amount to loss of life should be heavily punished, especially when it comes from negligence of a professional. This is compounded by the fact that the rest of the society depend fully on them and they can do nothing without them.

For instance, doctors should be held at a higher legal accountability and responsibility as compared to teachers because their negligence may result to loss of life of a patient or further medical complications. The performance of an individual in school is dictated by many factors but not solely by teachers. Still, no life is at stake here. Therefore, teachers should be held at lower legal accountability and responsibility that teachers.

The main advantage of my stand is that, by putting tougher legal measures, these professionals are able to see the sensitivity of their careers and the value of life and therefore undertake their responsibilities diligently (Moore, & Savage, 2004). They are forced to adhere to the values and codes of ethics set by the state and their professional bodies and prevented from overstepping the boundaries credibility. The major disadvantage is that these professionals are robed their right of equity.

All laws in any given state should be treated equally therefore having tougher legal measures against some professionals is discriminative. Structural engineering is one of the professions which should be held at higher standards of legal accountability and responsibility. This is because they are trained to design buildings where human beings are expected to be living or working from. Failure of these buildings can claim a lot of life and property and therefore, it would be very costly.

They are therefore expected to come up with designs that cannot fail and should be heavily punished for their mistakes. Teachers should not be held at higher standards of legal accountability and responsibility because success in studies depends not only on the teacher but also the student’s efforts. Many other factors such as family matters and peer influence may also influence student’s performance and behavior.

Therefore, some professions, especially those which deal with saving lives, should be held at higher standards of legal accountability and responsibility than others. References Judith, H. (2004). Law and Ethics. CHELTENHAM: Nelson thrones Ltd. Moore, L. , & Savage, J. (2004). Interpreting Accountability. Retrieved July 24, 2010, from http://www. rcn. org. uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/78605/002249. pdf Wueste, D. (1994). Professional Ethics and Social Responsibility. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

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