Ethics and Decision Making for Interpreters

Brenda Liebman Aron

 

I would like to discuss about ethics and decision making for interpreters.

You must remember, as interpreters, you often work alone. Even when you work in teams, some situations may come up where you really have to deal with the issue of ethics and to make the best decision in certain situations. Therefore, it is important for you to be aware and also to be prepared to deal with some situations that require you to deal with ethically.

 

Before we proceed with this topic, I would like to first discuss what you think the word, Ethics mean to you?

 

Usually the answers are like those below:

 

"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong."
"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."
"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."
"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts."

 

Actually, the meaning of "ethics" is hard to pin down, and the views many people have about ethics are shaky.

 

Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.

 

Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well founded reasons.

Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. As mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly examine one's standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html

The above paragraph about Ethics is derived from this website.

What did I do? I decided to borrow the meaning of ethics from a wonderful website, and to be ethical, I included the address of the website where I got this information from.

Now, that we have a better idea what this term means, how does it apply to the field of interpreting?

 

Let’s review RID’s Code of Ethics:

 

CODE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

 

Tenets

1.     Interpreters adhere to standards of confidential communication.

2.     Interpreters possess the professional skills and knowledge required for the specific interpreting situation.

3.     Interpreters conduct themselves in a manner appropriate to the specific interpreting situation.

4.     Interpreters demonstrate respect for consumers.

5.     Interpreters demonstrate respect for colleagues, interns, and students of the profession.

6.     Interpreters maintain ethical business practices.

7.     Interpreters engage in professional development.

 

In the course of this workshop, we will discuss some situations interpreters may face in their career. Some of those situations actually happened.

 

What I would like to do now is to give you a hypothetical situation below.

Please break up into small groups of 3-4 people and discuss what you would do in this situation. I want you all also to think about the issues. After 3 minutes I will ask you to return to the larger group to share your thoughts.

 

Please remember, in every situation, there may be several ways to deal with a specific situation however, often there is a best way. I want you all to think of all the possible perspectives i.e., Deaf client, the person who hired you, the hearing person you are interpreting for, yourself etc.

 

Situation 1:

 

You are interpreting for a Deaf client in a Social Security Office. After about an hour of interpreting, the SS counselor leaves the room to get some forms for the client to sign. The Deaf client then turns to you and signed, “I do not understand what the lady said. Please repeat and explain to me what she means. Why do I have to sign forms? I do not understand”. What do you do?

 

 

What are the issues here?

  1. The interpreter is there to interpret between the client and the counselor.
  2. If you proceed to explain, you may not be correct, and then you will be

responsible for the misunderstandings. It is also not your job.

3. The counselor needs to know that s/he was not clear and it is his/her

responsibility to clarify.

 

The best answer would be to tell the client to wait until the counselor returns to the room and repeat what the client told you and give the responsibility to the counselor to clarify what is being said and the purpose of the papers.

It is also possible that you are not matching the client’s level of understanding in your interpreting. You may need to adjust the language level too.

 

Now, I will give you another hypothetical situation. This time, I would like you to pair up, discuss for about 2-3 minutes then get back to the group. Again, after your discussion, please share what you think are the issues related to ethics in this situation and the role of the educational interpreter.

 

Situation 2:

 

You are an educational interpreter in a high school. Right after class,  the 15 year old female Deaf student you interpret for came up to you and told you that she is pregnant and to please keep it confidential. She is afraid to tell her parents and the school too. What do you do?

 

[Students convene and share their thoughts and how best to deal with this situation]

 

Issues:

  1. Educational interpreters are in a unique situation, they spend more time with the students they interpret for, and thus develop closeness. Deaf students often feel more comfortable sharing confidential information with their interpreters than with other school personnel.
  2. In general, the issue of confidentiality is important between client and interpreter as listed in our Interpreter Code of Ethics.

3.  However, as educational interpreters for minors, the parents are the legal

     guardians of their child and the responsibility lies in the parents and the

     school.

 

Best Answer: Encourage the student to talk to the school counselor and/or to the parents. You may offer to interpret for the student. You must be clear that you, as an adult employee of the school cannot keep this confidential from school personnel.

 

B. Aron 2006