Lawyers' Lack of Moral Commitment to Comply with Criminal Requirements Regarding Helping Others

Objective: Iranian legislature, in accordance with health ethics, has determined that it should punish failure to assist the injured. In practice, however, people in general and lawyers in particular do not adhere to all such legal requirements. The problem is that criminal intervention in ethical matters is accompanied by fundamental challenges such as the paradox between moral autonomy and external legal coercion, which lead lawyers to adopt specific measures. This issue regarding lawyers has not been addressed in research so far. Thus, the focus is on the ethical challenges arising from the application of criminal laws and examining the consequences of these challenges on the health of injured people.

Methods and Materials: This is a qualitative study conducted with a grounded theory approach, that aims to gather and analyze non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality. In this method, there is no pre-existing hypothesis, but it is formed during the analysis. This method is effective for discovering qualitative issues such as beliefs and motivations. The challenges addressed in this research are also qualitative.  To collect data, a total of 21 interviewees were randomly selected from among the lawyers to conduct in-depth interviews. After conceptualizing the propositions, the main categories were extracted and causal conditions were separated from strategies and consequences.

Findings: When faced with a situation that involves helping others, lawyers are often reluctant to help due to the awareness of consequences and subsequent legal problems. Some of them avoid helping by leaving the duty to the state, some others use the strategy of de-risking of help such as particularistic aid. In result, the personal ethics are prioritized over the ethics of help. These specific findings show how helping others, among lawyers is declining.

Conclusion:  The legal problems of helping the injured person reduce the amount of help. Also, insisting on prohibiting assistance to fugitives makes lawyers conservative and reduces the spirit of helping. For, compassion, whether for the injured or for the fugitive, is of the same essence. Therefore, legislature should approach the ethical issue of assistance with great care and flexibility.