ABSTRACT
Forensic anthropology is the fi eld of study concerned with the identifi cation of suspected or known human remains from medico-legal contexts. Traditionally, forensic anthropologists dealt with dry, complete, and fragmentary skeletal remains, but they now commonly work with fl eshed, decomposed, burnt, and dismembered remains. In addition, forensic anthropologists assist in answering questions of identifi cation in clinical cases, such as those related to the age of an individual, and investigations involving missing persons and victims of crimes, accidents, mass disasters, and war crimes. Because of the emotive nature of the material that forensic anthropologists work with and the diversity of contexts in which they may work, the ethical issues practitioners have to consider span social, cultural, and political realms. The aim of this chapter is to consider a number of ethical issues a forensic anthropologist may face, and, in doing so, it seeks to raise questions rather than provide answers about the plethora of ethical matters that should and do concern the practice of forensic anthropology.
