On Professional Ethics of Medical Doctors Working for the Pharmaceutical Industries

The formalization and codification of professional ethics has always been a central element of the professionalization of professional groups and a legitimization of professional autonomy, social privileges and market shelters. The anticipation of ethical standards by individual professionals is sociologically explained with the process of professional socialisation and integration into the epistemic and moral community of the profession. In the paper consequences on the concept of professional ethics associated with dimensions of economisation in the field of professional work are discussed. It is referred to empirical findings of a study on highly specialized medical doctors working for the pharmaceutical industries.