Control of the Medical Profession through the Professional Codes of Conduct (Comparative Study of the Approach of Germany and America)

Control of professional and guild institutions in the form of the administrative guardianship is always important. However, it is also possible to control these institutions by setting some professional standards based on autonomy. The medical profession has a special sensitivity due to its connection with the most important aspects of human life and making an effort to bring the performance of its members subject to professional standards which are generally adopted by governmental authorities in the form of codes of ethic. Although, in countries such as Germany and the United States of America, medical unions set these standards in the form of codes of conduct. The professional codes of conduct are more definite than the codes of ethic and have some sanctions and therefore have the mandatory power. The question is, what is the status of physicians' professional standards in Germany and the United States of America? Because the duties contained in the physicians' codes of conduct of Germany and the United States of America precisely explain how physicians perform and to ensure compliance there are some sanctions, so these codes in the form of soft law have a legal obligation. The purpose of this article is to explain the physicians' behavioral duties and its sanctions as an important part of the professional codes of conduct to find out that the regulations of professional medical institutions are binding in some conditions and are able to control physicians' conduct. In this regard, we have used codes of conduct, books and articles and we are trying to achieve this goal in a descriptive-analytical manner. The findings show that despite the prediction of some behavioral duties such as confidentiality in Germany and the united states of America, the German approach to enact of behavioral duties and sanctions is more exact and in accordance with professional autonomy.