On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 2:57 PM, Aditya Kapil <[email protected]> wrote:
> Meaning even if the law allows something, would one still say is it ethical > to do this. Like for example selling genomic information to health > insurance > companies, that could bias premium policies merely due to genetic > pre-disposition towards a disease. That's legal but, in my opinion, not > ethical. > Adit. > > There's different factors at play here. It may well, in your opinion, be unethical to provide genomic information and I might even share that view, however as a lawyer I would not be concerned about my ethical view. It would be completely ethical for me to advise the insurance co./client to partake of the information because the dissemination of such information is legal. It would be unethical to advise someone to do something illegal (obviously) or to do something legal in an illegal way. But I think a lot of these rules of ethics pertain to facilitating the administration of justice - not fabricating evidence, no false/frivolous litigation etc. So the dichotomy is that while as a human being i might feel like i have done something unethical, as an attorney I have maintained the highest professional ethical standards and my actions can't be questioned. This dichotomy arises because in your example the unethical element has been codified into the law. As a lawyer, I am only applying the law without attempting to subvert it in any way. Nikhil > > > > -- > "Science flies man to the moon. Religion flies man in to buildings" >
