Many ethical assessments of contemporary moral dilemmas have failed to
appreciate the uncertainty and ambiguity that practitioners confront,
especially when new and emerging technologies are involved. In an att
empt to provide a more realistic and compelling approach to these prob
lems, the seventh CAP Foundation Conference adopted an interprofession
al perspective. Interprofessional ethics borrows from the American pra
gmatist tradition of John Dewey and Jeffrey Stout and the neothomistic
perspective of Edmund Pellegrino and David Thomasma. Professions are
public institutions that have made promises to preserve and enhance so
cial goods, eg, health, justice, and tolerance. Yet, in a pluralistic
democracy, each institution inevitably finds its moral presuppositions
legitimately challenged by the presuppositions of others. The uncerta
inty and ambiguity that good physicians, lawyers, journalists, and reg
ulators regularly confront arise from the partiality of each of their
ethical perspectives. Hence, the more seriously we take our obligation
s to maintain public trust, the more clearly we should recognize our d
ependence on other professions.