Ethics as a discipline applies ancient principles to current situations. It seems appropriate to begin an article on ethics in the second year of the twenty-first century with a serviceable definition from a contemporary source: Encarta, the online encyclopedia from Microsoft. Ethics (from the Greek ethos, meaning "character" or "custom") is defined as "principles or standards of human conduct, sometimes called morals (from the Latin mores, meaning "customs"), and by extension, the study of such principles, sometimes called "moral philosophy"[1]. In other words, ethics (or morals; the terms typically are used interchangeably) is the study of right and wrong conduct, regardless of whether it is codified into laws. In contrast to ethics, the law, as pointed out by Koocher and Keith-Spiegel [2], may differ in terms of origins and purposes and especially the manner of enforcement of legal standards. In criminal matters, an individual is pitted against the state, and such serious consequences as loss of liberty or heavy fines are potential consequences. In civil matters, although imprisonment is not a possible outcome, lawsuits still revolve around violations of law, such as tort law in malpractice matters, and one wins or loses in court depending on whether one has shown the elements of the suit to be present, usually by a preponderance of the evidence. Many areas of law do not concern ethics or morality, and many areas of ethical concern are not, for various reasons, amenable to the passage or effective prosecution of laws. The Ten Commandments, the primary code of ethics and morality for Judeo-Christian civilization, is an example of how some moral precepts have and others have not been made into law. Killing someone is proscribed by the Ten Commandments and by the law in every civilized country. On the other hand, honoring one's mother and father is an ethical precept but not a law. The reasons that some ethical matters are not codified into law are various, not the least of which is the unenforceability of such laws. Prohibition in this country could be seen as an attempt to legislate morality, and it failed utterly. Not only was it unenforceable but also it spawned a whole series of unintended consequences that endangered public health by allowing moonshiners to make alcohol in their bathtubs without regulation or quality control and by creating a new criminal subculture. On the other hand, law and ethics are parallel concepts: both begin with core principles and codes of behavior that must be applied to situations that are new and often unprecedented. The law and ethics are constantly changing and evolving to meet new situations as society and its institutions change. Much law represents interpretation by courts of existing or conflicting principles, but new law is also made. Similarly, much of the literature on medical ethics represents interpretation of ethical principles, but on occasion newly delineated ethical principles are added to codes.
