Ethics: What about thou shalt?

Codes of ethics typically define what “thou shalt not” do. They also mostly deal with legalities. Because of this approach, codes rarely prevent unethical conduct because such conduct is in a “gray zone” that is difficult to codify. Prior to the Defense Industry Initiative, for example, Defense contractors had a lot of “codes,” but still got into ethical hot water. The codes did not say what behaviors were expected, only those that were not. That made the rules easy to get around.