SOCIETY HAS NO CHOICE but to depend on specialists to make and carry out decisions that call for expertness. The more expertise required to perform a service, the more the society must have confidence in those who perform it. Hence, a profession of experts is responsible to the public for the service it renders. All professions discharge this responsibility in similar ways. All use a process of developing and enforcing professional standards in the selection, preparation, and practice of their members. This is a process by which a profession says to the public, you may depend on us. We guarantee to you that the service given you by our profession will be of high quality, that every person performing the service will be competent and will function effectively. The degree to which a professional group is able to discharge this responsibility is a sign of the maturity of the profession, for the really mature profession is self-disciplining and is the object of the public's implicit faith. What does a profession actually do in setting and enforcing standards of selection, preparation, and performance, giving attention first to the setting of standards and then to mechanisms for their enforcement?