A THEORY OF ETHICS FOR FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY

This article offers a justification for a set of principles that const itute the ethical underpinnings of forensic psychiatry. Like professio nal ethics in general, the principles are based on the particular soci etal functions performed by forensic psychiatrists and result in the i ntensification of obligations to promote certain important moral value s. For forensic psychiatrists, the primary value of their work is to a dvance the interests of justice. The two principles on which that effo rt rests are truth-telling and respect for persons. In the same manner as other physicians who perform functions outside of the usual clinic al context (e.g., clinical researchers), forensic psychiatrists cannot simply rely on general medical ethics, embedded as they are in the do ctor-patient relationship-which is absent in the forensic setting. Ind eed, efforts to retain some residuum of that relationship and its asso ciated ethical principles are likely to create confusion in the minds of both forensic psychiatrists and their evaluees and to heighten the problems of double agency. A virtue of this approach is the clear dist inction it offers between clinical and forensic roles.