Prosecuting Character. Just got some thoughts after reading Randy Cohen's ethicist column a few Sunday Times ago. The question dealt to our ethical advisor went like this:
A federal prosecutor has investigated and prosecuted narcotics trafficers. Some friends use recreational drugs, like marijuana, and the prosecutor has no problems with such use. Is this unethical...and would it be unethical if the prosecutor shared a bowl with the friends?

Randy Cohen writes that, while there is certainly hypocricy in not practicing what one preaches, this is not a lack of ethics; rather, a lack of character.
Cohen, though, goes on to speculate that the prosecutor might have a serious disagreement with the drug laws. Here, we do have an ethical violation. A key element of our ethics, Cohen writes, is the effect of our actions. Here, the prosecutor's actions send people to jail- inflicting the real harm of loss-of-liberty. Such action was done in service of policies the prosecutor disagrees with. As such, the prosecutor acts unethically.

To some degree, I agree with Cohen--if the prosecutor has a real dispute with the drug laws- and those drug laws are at the center of his work. But I think Cohen overlooks the nature of a prosecutor. The prosecutor acts as a servant of the state. As such, the prosecutor acts outside his personal choices at times. There are times when you prosecute a thing because it is state policy with which you disagree. As such, I think such prosecution is not unethical.

In point of fact, I wonder if the prosecutor that prosecutes with a personal sense of rage at the crime, as opposed to a civic sense of dedication to society's/the state's decision of criminal elements might be acting unethical. That, though, might be a story for another day.