Page 11 - The Medical Interprete

1. An Overview of Medical Interpreting

Interpreters had to be duly sworn to perform their task “well and faithfully,” ex-
pressing the matter before them “clearly and frankly,” “without hiding or adding
anything,” “without acting in favor of any of the parties,” and “without deriving
any profit from their task other than the pay due to them.”…

• Interpreters for the Indian language(s) shall have the necessary capacities and
qualities.…
• The interpreters shall not accept or ask for presents or gifts.…
• The interpreters shall not hold private meetings with Indian clients.…
• The interpreters shall not act as advocates for the Indians.

Pöchhacker (2004, p. 13)

Paving the way for medical interpreting

The modern interpreting profession was born in
the 20th century. Conference interpreting was
the first specialization to professionalize, in part
because of the birth of international bodies such
as the League of Nations (founded in 1920).
Professional conference interpreting began with
two official languages, French and English. As
of 2016, the European Union has 24 official
languages.

The Nuremberg trials after World War II estab-
lished simultaneous interpreting as an integral
part of conference interpreting. After that, conference interpreting spread swiftly around the world.
Court interpreting was the next specialization to establish itself. In 1978, the U.S. Court Interpreters Act
(28 U.S.C. §1827) laid the foundation for the profession of U.S. court interpreting. The idea behind this
law was to put defendants who spoke limited English on an equal footing with those fluent in English.

Community interpreting: A young profession

Community interpreting is a social justice
profession: it strongly supports equal access
to basic human services. This is also true for
medical interpreting.

Australia and Sweden led the way in establishing
community interpreting as a profession in the
1970s. From the start, medical interpreting was
a critical part of community interpreting in these
countries.

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