ABSTRACT
The second important source of ethical guidance for consideration are professional codes of ethics. Codes of ethics are seen as an integral part of patient protection because they establish the ethical standards expected of the practitioner and provide a benchmark against which a practitioner can be held accountable. Yet, the extent to which these influence practitioners’ behaviour is questionable, given that not all practitioners belong to a professional body and not all professional bodies maintain an up-to-date code of ethics reflecting current practice. Because some therapies have become professionalised only relatively recently, there has been a tendency for professional bodies to borrow a code of ethics from elsewhere (often another therapy) and to apply it uncritically to their practitioners. Other professional bodies have a code of ethics, but do not have corresponding disciplinary mechanisms to enforce its standards, so that adherence to its provisions is arbitrary.
