Examples Of Social Work Ethical Dilemmas
| The primary objective of social work is to improve the living conditions of human beings and help them in meeting basic human needs, with special focus on people who are oppressed or those living in poverty. Social workers relentlessly work towards ending various form of social injustice such as discrimination, oppression and poverty through a coordinated effort that includes consultation, administration, policy advocacy, social and political action, policy development and implementation, education, research and evaluation.
Ethical dilemmas are quite commonly encountered by social workers during their interactions with clients, agency policies, procedures, colleagues, administrators, and organizational systems.
An ethical dilemma is a predicament where a person must decide between two viable solutions that seem to have similar ethical value. An ethical dilemma can occur when a social worker has to take a moral course of action depending upon two different moral philosophies that conflict with each other. In another situation, a decision has to be made from the available choices without even knowing in advance the outcome of the decision. The result can either be beneficial or harmful. In the third instance, a social worker has to make a choice that might be best only for a certain section of individuals involved in the conflict and is harmful for the other party.
Ethical dilemmas of social workers can be resolved in consultation with social work organization’s ethical committee or a regulatory body or a legal counsel. However, the most accepted method for dealing with ethical dilemmas is to develop and implement a professional code of ethics.
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