ABSTRACT
One of my favourite modes of writing is to reflect upon some aspect of my life or my experience – to use that to draw out the points I wish to make. For some, this is disconcerting and indulgent – for others it is too revealing of me – the ‘author’ who should be shrouded by the power of the invisible ‘authority’. I am, however, going to indulge myself again, as the role of the ‘author’ in ethical situations is part of the point I wish to make here. In doing this I am adopting the perspective that each of us interprets ‘reality’ and our own position in that from our own perspective, and thus we ‘author’ our world (Lee, 2002). The personal examples that I describe here each illustrate one particular area that I wish to cover: reification, time dependence, individual understanding of the nature of ethical codes and the challenge of emotion, but have implications for the others. Before exploring them, however, I shall set the scene by looking at what is meant by codes of ethics and the nature of ‘author’ity.
