Ethics in public service interpreting

Abstract

In Public Service Interpreting (PSI), which often involves high-stake encounters where interactants are steered by different motives, ethics is intricately interwoven with the role of interpreters. This chapter outlines the trajectory of ethics in PSI research and theoretical approaches to ethics in this field, before examining central strands of topics that emerge from a reading of the PSI literature on ethics. It also discusses the shortcomings of deontological codes and outlines ethical challenges related to different forms of interpreter agency, showing that a discussion of ethics in many cases ultimately boils down to the well-known controversy around the interpreter’s degree of involvement. The chapter also presents specific models of ethical decision-making and reasoning and central findings of empirical research that has studied public service interpreters’ ethical decision-making.