The Evolution of Ethics in America: Standards Born of Crises

147 Pages·2022·6.422 MB·English

by  Laurence Armand French

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THE EVOLUTION OF ETHICS IN AMERICA
In this book, Laurence Armand French frames the emergence of medical, clinical, and legal ethical
standards within the long history of institutional and systemic racial and gender biases in the
United States. He explores the role that White privilege and elitism play in justifying long-h eld
discriminatory practices ranging from the eugenics crusade a century ago to the #MeToo and Black
Lives Matter (BLM) movements of today. This book identifies and analyzes events highlighting
systemic racism in the United States and explores how these events were exacerbated during the
presidency of Donald J. Trump.
The evolution of ethical standards in the United States is a reaction to long-h eld practices
that discriminate against certain classes of people based on gender, age, and race and ethnicity.
The White supremacist worldview contributed to systemic biases that directly affect people of
color as well as women, and those biases, in turn, are inherent components of the social structure
of economic, academic, and judicial institutions. This process impacts both procedural and social
justice, the very foundation of ethical standards of which our Constitution is based. This work
attempts to unravel the social and psychological aspects of human behavior contributing to this
phenomenon.
This concise yet comprehensive book is a valuable resource to a broad audience, including
students of criminal justice, as well as scholars, researchers, and professionals in both the social and
physical sciences.
Laurence Armand French has a Ph.D. in sociology (criminology)/ social psychology from
the University of New Hampshire- Durham; a postdoctorate in minorities and criminal justice
education from SUNY- Albany; and a Ph.D. in educational psychology and measurement/c ultural
psychology from the University of Nebraska-L incoln. He is Professor Emeritus of Psychology
from Western New Mexico University and is currently an affiliate professor of justice studies,
college of liberal arts, University of New Hampshire. He has also taught at HBCU facilities (Prairie
View A&M University; Grambling University) and is widely published in the areas of minorities
and social justice.
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THE EVOLUTION OF ETHICS
IN AMERICA
Standards Born of Crises
Laurence Armand French
iv
First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Laurence Armand French
The right of Laurence Armand French to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: French, Laurence, 1941– author.
Title: The evolution of ethics in America : standards born of crises /
Laurence Armand French.
Description: New York , NY : Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021025076 (print) | LCCN 2021025077 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032124148 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032123332 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003224426 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Ethics–United States–History.
Classification: LCC BJ352 .F74 2021 (print) |
LCC BJ352 (ebook) | DDC 170.973–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021025076
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021025077
ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 12414- 8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 12333- 2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 22442- 6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003224426
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
1 Introduction 1
The Human Dynamics of Law, Ethics, and Morality 4
Contravening Ideological Perspectives and Moral Judgment 5
2 Due Process: The Ethics of Social Justice 9
Genesis of Institutionalized Racism in America 9
The American/ Nazi Connection Regarding the Pseudo- Science of Eugenics 9
The Emergence of America’s Double Standard of Justice 11
The Adversarial Justice Model 12
Jim Crow Justice 14
Social Justice and Legal Ethics 22
3 Informed Consent 25
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study 25
American Eugenics Movement 26
Prisoners: Cheaper Than Chimpanzees 31
COVID and College Consent Contracting 32
4 Duty to Disclose 36
Regulating Advances in Medicine 36
The Sampling Dilemma: Students, Prisoners, and Veterans 37
Case Study: The Boston VA Valproate Acid Experiment 40
The Opioid and Coronavirus Crises and Their Antecedents 42
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5 Duty to Warn and Report 47
The Duty to Warn: Exceptions to Client’s Right to Confidentiality 47
Duty to Report 49
Federal Omission— Indian Country 51
6 Cruel and Unusual 58
The Prevalence of Systemic Racism 58
International Conventions Against Torture 59
America’s Torturous History from the 1950s to Post- 9/ 11/ 01 60
The Continued Use of Torture— The Gulf War Era 62
Psychologists and Torture 64
7 Abuse of Privilege 73
Social Stratification and Elitism 73
Institutionalized and Systemic Sexism 74
Education and Privilege: The Socialization of the Elite 77
The Hampton/ Carlisle Boarding School 79
SPS 82
The Mechanism of Privilege and Entitlement 84
Audiences and Circles of Influence 84
Social Structure and Institutional and Systemic Biases 85
“Club Ed” and the Spoils of the Privileged Elite 87
Status and Role Exploitation 89
Privilege, Entitlement, and “Sexploitation” 91
Sexploitation in Academia 92
Dartmouth College Psychologists 94
SPS’ “Senior Salute” 96
The Enshrinement of the Privilege Elite Class via Academic Discourse 98
8 Ethics During the Trump Era 103
Introduction 103
Toward an Understanding of the Mechanism of Social Divisiveness 103
Ethical Consequences for Pathological Lying 105
Article of Impeachment 106
Law and Order Under the Trump Administration 109
Justice Sotomayor’s Dissent 112
Border Justice 117
President Trump’s January 2019 “Border Wall” Address to the Nation 117
The Trump Administration’s Family Separation Policy 120
The COVID Crises 122
Selected Bibliography 126
Index 133
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work reflects an unanticipated outcome of my Fulbright Specialist assignment at the
Universidad Autonoma Indigenous de Sinaloa (UAIS) in Los Mochis in the fall of 2019. Two
prominent community members, Mario Alvarez, M.D., Anaesthesiologist, and Ernesto Guerra
Garcia, Ph.D., Coordinator of Graduated Studies at UAIS, were instrumental in involving me in
their ongoing “ethics” group that eventually led to my presentation, “Evolucion de la Bioethica
en Estados Unidos” at the Facultad de Enfermeria at the Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa in Los
Mochis on October 10, 2019.
My colleague Magdaleno Manzanrez at Western New Mexico also shares credit for this effort
in that it was his collaborative efforts with Mexican institutions of higher education that led to
the Fulbright assignment in the first place. He was instrumental in getting Dr. Ernesto Guerra
Garcia at UAIS and Dr. Eva America Mayagoitia Padilla at the National Pedagogical University
of Chihuahua to provide chapters for the 2019 Routledge Handbook on Native American Justice
Issues. The handbook subsequently led to the Fulbright Specialist assignment at the Indigenous
University in Los Mochis.
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INTRODUCTION
Ethics (a) The discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligations;
(b) A theory or system of moral values; (c) The principles of conduct governing an indi-
vidual or group.1
Deontology: The theory or study of moral obligations.2
Ethical issues are currently of both national (United States) and international concern ranging
from crimes against humanity, human subject experiments, to sex abuse and human trafficking.
Paramount to these concerns are institutional cover- ups and justifications for these actions by
institutions of trust such as religious/ sectarian groups, law enforcement agencies, educational
institutions, and even the Boys Scouts of America. Historically shrouded in philosophical polemics,
within esoteric academic or theological settings, deontological ethnics is often presented as a mani-
festation of man’s (humans) free will or as an element of superior intellectual reasoning allowing for
the pretense of superior paternalism by those who prescribe these ethical and moral standards for
others. Often those providing these ethical and moral insights cite a higher authority with whom
they have a privileged affiliation or refer to their self-p roclaimed superior intellect as the source of
their proscribed rules and logic supportive of their moral imperatives. Prophets and philosophers
conjure up the “rights” and “wrongs” for human groups sharing a common ideological and cultural
ethnomethodology. Examples are the “Ten Commandments”—t he moral foundation of Judaism,
Christianity, and Muslims. Another example is the “Hippocratic Oath” of “Do No Harm,” the
foundation of medical and clinical professions.
While seemingly universal in their application, cultural/w orldviews differences come into play
relevant to the distribution of these standards. Social psychological group dynamics such as “social
stratification,” “audience effect,” “in- group/ out- group dynamics,” and the “confirmation/ attribu-
tion biases” are crucial to any viable study of societal norms and values. While certain moral
standards appear to be universal, such as the “Ten Commandments” or variations of this theme,
their application is not absolute across cultural divides, or time, given that societal values are based
upon the acceptable rules and their distribution at any given time. In this sense, societies are seen
as artificial constructs subject to change over time. Accordingly, the acceptable rules, norms, and
values are subject to change that need to reflect the group’s prescribed epistemology at any given
DOI: 10.4324/9781003224426-1