The process of consolidating translation into a professional activity has led to the development of numerous codes of ethics. These texts become an integral part in the production of a shared discourse through which the profession makes itself known to society. The present paper intends to find out how translators’ collective insights address issues of work ethics, as well as draw conclusions about the professional status quo. With this goal in mind, the codes of translators’ associations and related professionals present in Spain have been analyzed to identify elements which prove relevant according to the main tenets of ethics theory. These codes are compared with those of doctors and lawyers as examples of highly consolidated professions. The results provide interesting data concerning the image that society has of translation, its increasingly unclear borders, and the growing importance of its economic dimension. This contribution provide a new perspective on the content and scope of the codes of ethics studied on not only in the theoretical and methodological proposals on which it is based, but also on he exhaustiveness with which the target field is analysed.