Pre-registration Required

Monday, July 21, 2008       Time: 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

#6 Ethics in the Forensic Sciences
        - When is the Line Crossed?

Faculty

Robin Bowen, MA West Virginia University Forensic Science Initiative 1600 University Avenue, Room 208, Oglebay Hall Morgantown, WV 26505	JC Upshaw Downs, MD Georgia Bureau of Investigation 925 A Mohawk Drive Savannah, GA 31419	Max Houck, MA West Virginia University Forensic Science Initiative 3040 University Avenue PO Box 6217 Morgantown, WV 26506
Haskell Pitluck, JD 573 Lake Avenue Crystal Lake, IL 60014	Anjali R Swienton, MFS, JD SciLawForensics, Ltd 25 Walnutwood Court Germantown, MD 20874	Richard Vorder Bruegge, PhD Federal Bureau of Investigation Engineering Research Facility Building 27958A, Pod E Quantico, VA 22135
Michael Welner, MD The Forensic Panel 224 West 30th Street, #807 New York, NY 10001

“Tainted Science and Testimony Leads to Re-opening of 120 Cases over Last 15 years;” “Man Freed after Serving 21 years in Prison due to Lab ‘Oversight?’;” “State Crime Lab Employee Accused of Biased Analyses and Testimony” – all headlines that can confront, and scare, legitimately practicing forensic scientists. At the heart of this fear is wondering how such events occur since inherent in the practice of forensic science is the requirement for each practitioner to be ethical.

The word “ethical” can be defined merely as proper conduct. Tacitly, a failure of forensic scientists to act ethically results in serious adverse outcomes. However, while seemingly simple to define, the application of being “ethical” is somewhat more obscure. That is, when is ethical, ethical, and when is it not?

Clearly, as part of an adversarial legal system, there must be room for differences of opinion in the forensic sciences. What is not clear, however, is when such differences are so divergent that individuals’ ethics are drawn into question. In this workshop, a diverse pool of expertise has been compiled to address the role of ethics in the forensic sciences from several different perspectives with the intent of approaching an understanding when the proverbial ethical line is crossed.

The workshop will begin with a brief introduction to ethics, the role ethics plays in society and potential outcomes of unethical behavior, especially in the forensic sciences. Results of a survey on ethics in forensic science will be discussed. Presentations will further involve comparisons to canons of ethics in the related fields of medicine and law, the expectations, and limitations of being a government scientist, and lastly, the status of ethics in forensic science education.

As we move forward into the age of globalization, the forensic sciences worldwide will be under ever increasing scrutiny. In that respect, with the dissemination of information associated with the forensic sciences through such outlets as the internet, television and the print media, expectations and associated ethical issues will surface perhaps more than ever before. By meeting the issues of ethics in the forensic sciences head-on, we can hopefully be prepared for these challenges.