The central focus of this area of research is ethical issues raised by and within professions. In the words of UK Professor Ruth Chadwick, professional ethics concerns the moral issues that arise because of the specialist knowledge that professionals attain, and how the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public.

This broad filed raises many questions. These begin with the definitional imprecision of such notions as “profession” and “professionalism”, and the difficulties involved in identifying and justifying ethical values and standards underlying any area with a legitimate claim to professional status. Central themes include autonomy, responsibility, accountability, self regulation and compliance, as well as a range of issues arising from relationships with clients, from consent, paternalism and trust to conflicts of interest, confidentiality and deception. Increasingly, ethical questions arising in professional practice are being examined in the context of debates around the notion of social responsibility.