ABSTRACT
The article begins by considering some of the factors that make thinking about ethical issues difficult especially as they come up in language assessment. It discusses the idea of a professional ethics as a guide for ethical decision-making and rejects virtue and utilitarian accounts for a Kantian perspective. A Kantian perspective is favored in part because it encourages us to think about constructing a professional ethic as an object that helps further complex ethical ends. The ethical code of the American Psychological Association is discussed critically as a means of seeing how to understand differences between professional aspirations and principles that set requirements. I conclude with a brief discussion of 2 issues of concern for language assessment, educational accountability and immigration policy.
