Ethical and legal perspectives of forensic psychiatry in expert testimony

Abstract

Knowing the ethical paradigm that bases the medicine moral code is fundamental to act not only in care but also in the expert testimony process. From a revision of the literature, we propose to evaluate the way the four fundamental ethical principles (beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice) apply before, during, and after the psychiatric expert testimony, be it as expert or as technical assistant. New ethical challenges have been appearing in forensic psychiatry. With the COVID-19 pandemic, technology was adopted to allow the practice of telemedicine, but debates still occur if that would suffice for an adequate psychiatric expert testimony evaluation. Considering the complexity of the area, each situation must be analyzed in an individualized and all-encompassing way and seeking help to debate the ethical and legal perspectives of psychiatric expert testimonies is recommended when necessary.