The professions with the highest social recognition in Peru-lawyers, doctors, journalists, engineers in all fields, architects, psychologists, economists, and CPA's-demand as a pre-requisite for their practice membership in a professional organization. Peruvian law makes the professional degree given by the universities a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for practice for most professions.

Each professional organization must have a professional ethics code approved by its Associates General Assembly. The writing of the code is normally assigned to a special committee of the organization. Today's codes are of an eminently practical orientation, avoiding theoretical definitions or preciseness. The Peruvian philosophical community normally does not advise on the preparation of these codes. Recently, however, there have been signs that some professions recognize that the services of philosophy professors could be of help in writing better codes of professional ethics.

It's not possible, in a brief note like this, to explain in detail the problems of professional ethics worrying Peruvian professionals today. It is possible only to consider the most central. Because of the way they have affected professional practice in Peru during the last ten years, the most central problems seem to be: l) what stance to take toward political groups in armed struggle; 2) how to deal with narco-traffic and its power to bribe functionaries and authorities; 3) how to respond to violation of legality and of human rights by the military and para-military groups; and 4) how to respond to corruption in important sectors of public administration.

Let's look at some examples of how these problems affect two of the most ancient professions, medicine and law, and one of the newer but in fluential professions, journalism.

Lawyers must decide with some frequency courses of action which escape the reaches of positive law. For example: Legally a lawyer is neither forced to defend a narco-dealer nor barred from it. However, because of the economic power of narcodollars to bribe judges and tribunals, some Peruvian lawyers' associations consider it unethical for a member to assume the legal defense of narcodealers. Yet, some of the best known, and best paid, lawyers of Lima defend people accused as narco-dealers. The ethical controversy roused by these facts is not simple. The right to a defense is one of the fundamental rights of the citizen.

The ethical legitimacy of the defense of those accused of terrorism is different. The strongest obstacle is practical. Some defenders of those accused of terrorism have been mutilated, murdered, or "disappeared." Until now, the Peruvian police have not disclosed the identity of those responsible. Indeed, the police have sometimes been accused of terrorism or of terrorizing troublesome witnesses, causing the intervention of the United Nations, Amnesty International, and American Watch. That may explain why a group of lawyers in Lima assume the defense of those accused of terrorism on the doctrinaire theory that accused terrorists shouldn't be judged as common criminals but as war prisoners.

Today the chief ethical problem of Peruvian physicians concerns public health. Since January 1991, public health has been severely affected by an epidemic of cholera. The Peruvian Medical Association has held that its members have a moral duty to inform the public about the epidemic's causes, about its transmitting agents-actual and potential -and about the gravity of the situation. However, representatives of the government, and of business, dedicated to the export of sea products, have advised doctors not to be too explicit because information about the seriousness of the situation could frighten foreign customers, thus harming Peruvian exports and deepening Peru's severe economical crisis. An example of the conflict between duties and interests was given by the previous Minister of Public Health, who had to choose between continuing in a government interested primarily in increasing exports and fulfilling a physician's duty to tell the truth, the whole truth, about cholera. The Minister resigned his position. He decided to leave the government in order to be a physician who does his duty.

Peruvian journalists find themselves exhausted by trying to inform in such a way that news about the earnings of narco-dealers does not engender enthusiasm for easy wealth and that news about the armed insurrection doesn't become publicity for it. Their freedom to report is restricted because, often, they are forbidden to enter emergency zones. Then too, with some frequency, they are pressured to ignore corruption in the public administration. How great such pressure can be will be clear if one recalls that Peru has a relatively large public sector. The government is the richest client of journalism, radio, and television and of advertising agencies. Enterprises have to be cautious if they are to obtain the profitable preference of the State. That is why it isnt uncommon for a journalist who fulfills his duty with great zeal to pay with his job for "spilling the beans:" But when a journalist does his duty by informing about subversive violence, or about the actions of the armed forces, he may pay with his life. According with the United Nation's calculations, the risk of losing one's life or disappearing in Peru is one of the highest in the world.

Translated by Manuel Blanco-Gonzalez, University of Illinois at Chicago.