Ethical dilemma 7 to 10 pages of content

Ethical dilemma 7 to 10 pages of content

Needs to be 7 to 10 pages with 8 to 10 supporting in text citations and 8 to 10 references.  I did the abstract and there needs to be an intro page and all of the questions have to be answered. Need supporting evidence for and against.  The scenario I am using is below as well

The Ethical Dilemma Paper (due at the end of Unit 7) should focus on a real-life example from your own work. This should be a true ethical dilemma for you –not a simple black & white decision, not a decision that your client or a colleague has to make, and not something prescribed by your supervisor or agency.

An ethical dilemma is where you are making a decision about your own course of action, in a situation of great moral/ethical ambiguity, often including unavoidable conflicts between important values.

One of the most important aspects of the assignment is to make sure that the problem that you come up with is actually a true ethical dilemma.  Many students come up with examples that are ethical problems, but not ethical dilemmas.  One of the keys to recognizing whether or not a problem is truly an ethical dilemma has to do with the level of moral ambiguity.  Ethical dilemmas are high in moral ambiguity.  Let me point you to two sections in the text that may be of some help.  On pages 59-60, Linzer discusses the concept of “moral traces”.  He states: “The concept ‘moral traces’ refers to the consequences of having chosen one path, as opposed to the other path in an ethical dilemma.  Since both choices are ethical, the decision to act on one creates the feeling of having violated the other.  There is no winner in ethical decision making” (p. 60 italics added).  One of the observations that Dr. Linzer made in his lectures was that in a true ethical dilemma you never know whether or not you made the “right” decision because both arguments are compelling and you will never know the outcome of the option that you did not choose and you will always wonder if you make the right decision.  That is the “moral trace”.

The second section that you should read is on pages 204 to 207.  Linzer notes: “In circumstances pervaded by ethical ambiguity, the key is to acknowledge the complexity of the issues and the pull of contradictory moral imperatives” (p. 205).  Read that section and if you want to be sure that your scenario is a true ethical dilemma you can check with me.  I don’t want you to spend a lot of time developing and writing the paper only for me to tell you that it is not an ethical dilemma.  It is much easier if you have any doubts to contact me directly and describe the scenario.  And remember, in an ethical dilemma it is you and not the client who has to make the decision.

 When writing your paper, please follow this outline:

1.  Briefly describe your agency’s services and setting.

2.  Present a conflict situation from your own human service work that involves any number of parties, including yourself (you must be a part of the conflict/dilemma), the client, the family, the agency, the board, the funding agency, etc.  Summarize the conflict in one paragraph.

3.  Clearly state the ethical dilemma.  Discuss what makes this an ethical dilemma.  It would be excellent if you can identify the values that are in conflict (For more on this please see the mini-lecture on Beauchamp and Childress). Analyze the conflict from the value perspective of each of the parties.  (You could use Levy’s classification of values to do this.)

4.  Offer your resolution of this dilemma and the reasoning behind your decision.  Your decision should be theoretically justified.  (You cannot simply say that I decided to do this based on my own personal values.) Be sure to substantiate your rationale with the relevant literature.

Abstract

Throughout the career of any individual working in the human services field they are bound to be confronted with some type of ethical dilemma.  An ethical dilemma can be defined as any situation that presents choices and behaviors considered disagreeable to the decision maker based on the potential negative consequences.  Because there are unwanted consequences no matter what choice is made, it makes difficult the decision maker to make a clear cut decision of what is the right or wrong course of action.  The following will be a presentation of such a dilemma. A discussion will be made as to what makes this scenario an ethical dilemma, along with analyzing of the dilemma, resolution and reasoning behind the final decision to be made.   

The agency that I worked for provided services for behaviorally challenged children and served families and children who have found themselves in crisis due to substance abuse, mental health issues or other debilitating issues (Holy Family Institute, 2014). The children in this program were generally housed with this agency under the direction of Children Protective Services and/or Juvenile Justice.  This program also provided family programs to assist those families that were having difficulties with neglect, poverty and abuse.   Direct care and oversight was given to these children 24 hours 7 days a week while residing at the facility.  Many of these children attended school on the facilities main campus however many were afforded the privileged of attending school off facility grounds in their own school districts. 

Scenerio:  I am employed at an adolescent facility.  I have been assigned the girls unit.  Upon their return from school the girls are sitting in the main room discussing their day at school.  One of he girls discloses to the other girls that she is attracted to one of the clients on the boys unit.  I am concerned of her interest in this particular boy because he is diagnosed with HIV.  I pull the girl into the office to discuss the relationship she has with this particular boy.  She discloses to me that they were in fact sexually active and she has on occasion had sexual intercourse with him without condoms.  My concern is that this young girl may have been unknowingly infected with HIV.  Because of HIPPA laws and the confidentiality I am unable to disclose to the client that she may have been infected.  Later I conduct a meeting with the male client.  He reminds me that confidentiality forbids me from disclosing his medical condition.  My dilemma is whether or not I disclose to the girl and her parents that she may have been exposed to HIV.