齒科醫師 倫理의 歷史的 脈絡

This study analyzes problems of dental ethics, and inquires into its appropriate course. For this purpose, I inquired into the formative process of dental profession, and analyzed its ethical history. Investigating into the process of professionalization, I tried to unravel the role of dental ethics in that process, and analyzed the contents and structure of it.

I compared the formative process and ethics of Korean dental profession with that of Western societies. I tried to find suitable dental ethics in Korea by finding out and solving the problems revealed during this study.

Dental ethics has played an important role in the process of professionalization. In that process, both profession's authority and public confidence in the profession have been improved significantly. It was exactly the ethical practice that made the public to give autonomy and legal support to the profession. Thus dental ethics of Western societies could be based upon the philosophy of professionalism, and concrete standards and guiding principles derived from it.

On the other hand, Korean dental profession has not experienced the process of professionalization, because the category of dental profession was not formative but just given by the government. As a result, the ethical codes have neither the historical and cultural context nor philosophical background, not least concrete standards and legal support.

Reflecting upon the real situation of Korean dental profession, I argue, it is suitable to adopt professionalism as a philosophical background although we have not gone through the process of professionalization. And I also argue that the professionalization has not, and will not be a completed project. It is an on-going process during which the profession and the public interact and at times conflict. Dental ethics should be seen as a product of social agreement and legal support achieved during this interaction. In order to achieve the goal of professionalism, I also argue, Korean dentists should not only observe the current ethical codes but also make and follow guiding principles and concrete standards of dental treatments. I also propose Korean dentists to found an autonomous organization for ethics, and try to interact with the public voluntarily.