Role of professional organizations in setting and enforcing ethical norms

Self-regulating professions have historically used codes of conduct and codes of ethics to clarify the responsibilities of members to those they serve and to one another. These codes play an important role in safeguarding the professions' autonomy and in articulating standards for the profession. In medicine, many individual medical specialty associations, including the American Academy of Dermatology, maintain their own codes of ethics. These codes serve multiple purposes, including setting standards for the profession, educating members on their professional obligations, and communicating these standards to the public. They also generally provide a framework for enforcing code violations. The effectiveness of enforcement, however, may vary because of a code's specificity and because of limitations in sanctions available to the code's governing body.