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