Make Choices With An Ethical Toolkit Perspectives from Forensic Science

welcome

to the future murray clayton

i’m here to show you that success can be

redefined and doesn’t have to come at

the cost of self

i’d like to talk to you guys a little

bit about my very first crime scene

investigation

when i was still a forensic

anthropologist in training

and you know the call took me to rural

ontario

somewhere out in the west a little small

town and

the thing is it happened on halloween

and the crime itself was a domestic

assault

that had turned into a homicide and a

suicide

and an arson that had leveled a

three-story home

right down to the basement this was it

this were

this was the big leagues and this was

the real deal

and let me tell you i was so excited

about being something

part of something finally bigger than

myself that i had to

physically pull myself aside and wipe

that smile off my face

for professionalism’s sake but as i got

to work i started to realize that there

was a cost

a cost to someone else’s irrationality

and selfish decision making the decision

to take a life

the decision to destroy a home and the

decision to escape prosecution via

suicide

much like that case and this talk kind

of gets really heavy really fast

but the more cases i worked on and the

more i studied

the more i realized that every decision

we make has the potential to have an

enormous

impact on the world around us

thing is our moral compass and our

ethical decision-making process

changes all the time based on how the

world is changing around us and like we

saw before

we are on the verge of a global social

economic

political maybe now medical tipping

point

so with that kind of pressure how can we

be sure

that we’re ever making the right choice

i’m proposing an ethical toolkit

that consists of four considerations or

tools

that are meant to guide and ease the

decision-making process

developed based on my experiences and

with some collaboration from other

professionals this toolkit really is

meant

to build the vision that we see in the

future

where in ethical decision making

although sometimes

difficult at least can be made with a

clear conscience

and we all have our decisions to make as

a forensic scientist the day-to-day

work owning up to a mistake that i make

could lead to the loss of my own

credibility or my reputation

but there’s another cost because if i

don’t admit that mistake it could lead

to a miscarriage of justice

by which of course i mean an innocent

person getting put in jail

or a guilty person being set free

so my ethical dilemma then

hypothetically

could be choosing between my career and

someone else’s freedom

if we step outside of my bubble there

might be ethical choices that

you could be thinking about in your

day-to-day lives

maybe as a student academic integrity or

dishonesty

perhaps how we navigate our social media

presence online

dealing or navigating a toxic work

environment or a dishonest

boss how about the way we treat people

during the midst of a global health

scare seems pretty relevant right

now you’re going to have questions like

how do i make these tools work for me

or how do they give me these answers and

unfortunately i

cannot provide that response to you

because the thing with ethical theory is

that it is dynamic

and it offers approaches not solutions

so while i cannot give you your answers

at least you might be able to get some

clarity when dealing with a situation

the first tool i’m proposing is your own

independence

and being independent means being able

to make autonomous decisions

without the fear of losing your job

and without the threat to your own

safety

threats to independence typically come

from higher authority like your boss

or a manager ceo director in my case

it might come from the police or maybe

even the government

and lapses in independent judgment come

most commonly during times of war

especially for medical personnel who

have both a dual role as healer

but also military officer so when they

cannot execute

their own independent moral choices

they risk not only harm to their own

psychological health

but also the threat of losing their

license or even being charged with a war

crime

u.s doctors and nurses in guantanamo bay

were accused of torturing prisoners

but they cite extreme and direct

pressure

from the commanders in charge to make

those decisions thereby removing them

from what they know as their own

independent moral choices

in world war ii doctors were ordered

to give precious antibiotics not to the

soldiers

dying of life-threatening pneumonia but

rather to soldiers with

sexually transmitted infections why is

this well because the soldiers with stis

could heal up quicker and then head

right back out to the battlefront

whereas the soldiers with pneumonia

subsequently died

so it’s important to just take a second

think about what you would do in that

situation

been given a direct order from your

superior

that you know is going to lead to the

harm or possibly the death

of other individuals but you have a

higher

chance of winning that war

now acknowledging tricky situations like

this

really are a stepping stone towards

larger discussions

about the ability to be independent

but if we can take for granted that we

are truly independent

then we can start to think about our

next tool which is personal

virtue and personal virtue is your

measure

of what makes you a strong mind and a

strong character and essentially a good

person

you can start easily by asking questions

like

am i a good person how do i become a

good person

am i good at my job how do i be better

or you can focus in with actual virtues

like effort empathy compassion

honesty these may be virtues that you’re

striving to achieve

as a forensic scientist i see issues of

virtue rooted in notions

like truth and impartiality

but also good moral character now

you might be wondering who the heck

cares about my character if science is

the truth the whole truth and nothing

but the truth

shouldn’t that be enough well yes and no

because for true science to actually be

credible

it has to be interpreted by someone who

is reputable and trustworthy

and also competent

now it’s important to know that you can

be successful without sacrificing your

personal virtues

so for instance doctors who take the

hippocratic oath

i swear to do no harm they’re not just

looking at being

technically proficient and extremely

skilled we

we hope they are but we also hope that

they have

compassion and empathy

something that makes them a doctor with

good bedside manner

this is what completes that package of

success

so really you know we’re doing all right

we’re building a good

person here but you do have more help

and that comes in the form of an ethical

framework

which is a blueprint to help guide how

you’re going to be

building that decision-making process

so just by a show of hands how many

people here have ever heard of the

trolley problem

okay good good that’s more than i

usually get

um so for those of you who aren’t

familiar with the trolley problem

it’s an ethical thought experiment in

which you must

imagine a runaway train or trolley on a

track

and it’s about to hit five people you

have the power

to pull a switch and re-route that track

so it only hits

one person right so you have a choice to

make

how many of you just again by show of

hands would pull that switch

oh half a person one oh okay there you

go yeah so some people are thinking okay

maybe i would pull that switch

so what you’re actually demonstrating is

a utilitarian framework

where consequences matter and i’m

guessing that most of you said you’d

pull that switch because

sacrificing one life maybe that’s okay

if you can save a whole bunch

more right how many of you

would not touch that switch

okay brave yeah even back there as well

awesome so what you guys are

demonstrating is what we call a

duty-based framework

which really you’re assessing the active

agency

of causing someone’s death versus being

a passive

observer of something that might just

happen anyway

right so two very different approaches

and there really

is no one answer to that

other than the fact that you guys are

all complicit in murder now

but it’s just an example of the two

different ways that we could approach a

situation

another example would be a medical

ethical framework so remember that

hippocratic oath i swear to do no harm

that is actually the medical framework

for ethics that all doctors and nurses

subscribe to

it’s paramount and essentially it

leads their behavior no matter what

other ethical framework follows

and really it’s good to know that there

are hundreds of ethical frameworks out

there

each suited for different situations and

a simple google search of your

discipline

plus ethical framework will actually

provide you with one that might be right

for your profession

so to recap we have independence

we have personal virtue and we have an

ethical framework

now how do we know that those tools are

actually right for the job that we’re

doing

well that’s because your employer should

be providing you that last tool

a professional code of conduct and a

code of conduct sets the standards of

excellence and really codifies the

principles and the values

and the duties of the job that you’re

trying to get done

at the university of toronto mississauga

in the forensic science

program we train our students in ethics

and professionalism

starting with the university’s very own

code of conduct

so they know exactly how to be a moral

citizen

in the academic world now for a code of

conduct to be

useful and successful it has to be

accessible

and it has to be respected now by

accessible

i don’t just mean how easy is it to get

to but do you even understand it do you

understand the language in it

and are the scenarios outlined even

relevant to the type of job that you

want to do

and by respected i mean not only

respected by members outside of the

organization

but respected by members inside of the

organization because

if you don’t respect your own code of

conduct

then you’re leaving yourself open to

questionably questionable behavior

and unethical acts without knowing right

from wrong

now when using these tools

it’s a really good idea to take a step

back and think about how each one might

actually apply to you

so remember that case that i talked

about at the beginning my halloween

homicide

well believe it or not there are

actually ethical implications

to having a trainee on the field like i

was at the time

issues of competency

privacy luckily for me i was afforded

my own independence to execute my skills

that i’d trained for

and although i was supervised i still

had to make sure that there was no

pressure from the police

or from the fire marshal to influence my

work

and find evidence that fit the narrative

of what they think

happened before we had the actual

conclusion

the personal virtues that i tried to

strive for include professionalism

and self-control and this is really what

helped me

step back get over the excitement of

being at a case

and get to work and do it right

in addition to that the personal virtue

of responsibility

really helped me to appreciate the

gravity of the situation

and to keep going despite the fact that

it was very emotionally charged

and that we worked well into the

darkness of the night

the ethical framework that i choose to

subscribe to

is from the american anthropologists

association

that dictates the respect of human

remains

above all other values and providing for

the

safety and dignity and privacy

of humans that i work with be they alive

or dead

this is what guides my behavior and lets

me know what is the most

important thing at a crime scene to take

care of

and lastly the code of conduct that was

given to me

by the canadian society for forensic

science

lets me know that some of the values and

standards

can change the choices i make for

instance

it lets me know that standing here today

telling you what guys telling you guys

about this case

is okay because it’s for the purposes of

education

and awareness but it also lets me know

that it’s

not okay to tell you all the juicy

details about that crime that haven’t

been disclosed for the purpose of giving

you a thrill

right that’s a choice that i need to

make

and we all have a choice

when you can use your own personal

values you can really think about the

way

in which what you do influences the

world around you

if an ethical toolkit like this one can

be at the heart of all professional

training

then we can be proud to be responsible

for not only

the failures but also the successes

of the community around us and you can

build the future that you see in your

vision

thank you

you