[quote SadSisters]@Goosefoot immorality means wickedness. It relates specifically to acts of wrongdoing. What part of criminal defence law requires those practicing it to perpetrate wickedness or wrongdoing?
People may well be squeamish about the idea of practicing criminal law. I fee that way about many jobs - I wouldn’t want to be a psychiatrist who treats pedophiles, or a PIP assessor, or a prison guard, or a plastic surgeon. But my personal views on whether or not those jobs align with my own ideas about what is good and productive and helpful have nothing to do with immorality.[/quote]
Yes, squeamishness is a good word, and I think that actually is what a lot of people feel about jobs like slaughterhouse work. There is the physical squeamishness, but also a moral squeamishness, where people feel rather as if they'd feel badly, almost a little corrupted.
It's probably an unhealthy sentiment to indulge, really.
But as far as things like criminal law - there is a kind of moral edge I think that can go on with these things. In the most direct way, you may be doing something like telling what you know is a lie, even though ultimately it is in the interests of justice in terms of the whole system. I've seen this described as walking on the edge of a volcano - it can begin to distort the sense of right and wrong, in much the same way that jobs like slaughterhouse work, prison work, military work, even working with children, can harden people's sensibilities in some ways. There are consequences, psychologically, to playing certain parts in a system, and these are things that people wrestle with morally too - what is my culpability in playing this part? Does the system really balance out the harms? Etc.