This system involves doctors...

This system involves doctors, patients, lawyers, administrators, insurance companies, hospital workers, and many others. Doctors are subject to peer scrutiny and possible censure for wrongdoing by the American Medical Association. But this association is also an advocacy group on the behalf of doctors, and as such appears reluctant to accuse its members of wrongdoing in all but the most extreme cases. Thus, the task of moral censure falls to the judicial system.

This has resulted in widespread public debate over the reluctance doctors to perform procedures which have resulted in frequent litigation, and over the prohibitively high insurance rates in areas of specialization where litigation is common, most notably in pediatrics. The institutional system of red lights, the A.M.A. and the courts, are not providing the kind of moral warnings needed in the health care industry.

A similar lack of moral guidance could be cited in other professions, social institutions and corporations. The most important red lights to indicate the moral peril of association with various corporations must be self-installed. Instructions for the self-installation of red lights are provided in the teachings of the prophets and Imams, peace be with them.

It may be argued that the kinds of moral safeguards that are needed with regard to corporate entities are not institutional procedures, but values and commitments on the part of the individual members of such entities. According to this way of thinking, we do not really need red lights in the corporate machine; we just need honest operators. There are no special criteria needed to govern behavior in the corporate setting other than general ethical duties and principles.

There are several problems with this point of view. First, there is the invisible hand effect mentioned earlier, that is, even when individuals observe their duties and act morally, the institution as a whole may have moral failings. Second, if one benefits from the profits of a corporation, then without red lights, there will be a tendency to ignore corporate faults.

Third, the moral principles that govern action in personal life do not always coincide with the principles by which public action is or should be governed.[^1] Furthermore, there are a number of moral questions that arise regarding involvement in corporate activities that tend to be slighted in most standard approaches to ethics.