Exam 5: Values and Ethical Dilemmas

Fierce battles have raged about abortion for over two decades. Now, the issue has been permanently settled by the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision which found abortion to be a legal medical practice (and a woman's right to privacy).

Many babies can recover from the effects of crack-cocaine if given adequate treatment and support.

The Hyde Amendment prohibits using federal funds for abortion.

To what extent do you think that Dr. Kevorkian (the doctor who has assisted in several patient suicides) or anyone else should be legally allowed to assist persons who are terminally ill and want to end their lives? Under what circumstances would you permit this if you were a judge? List and explain at least one potential problem if "mercy killing" is legalized, and one potential benefit of active euthanasia that was presented in the case of Andrea. Examples of potential problems that acceptance of assisted suicide or mercy killing might lead to:

Which of the following is false?

By carefully delineating the required attitudes and values, new human service workers can be taught to avoid conflicts and dilemmas when they go out into social agencies to work.

Human service workers face dilemmas or value conflicts of one sort or another every day, no matter what their role in an agency.

In dealing with a bureaucracy whose practices seem to be hurting, rather than helping clients, workers should consider doing which of the following:

Why do the authors assert that workers can never be totally value-free, no matter how hard they might try?

Give an example of how a human service worker in a hospital or in a school for young children might show sensitivity to any gay or lesbian clients.

If coercion is necessary, such as in the case of mandated treatment, it should generally be undertaken with the client's knowledge.

What is meant by the phrase, "the client is your employer"? Do you think that there should be limits to this concept or situations where this could be difficult to believe, for example when working with an adult who is addicted to drugs or to having sex with children? The phrase means:

What suggestions do the authors offer to help us find our way out of the ethical jungle?

What are some of the reasons for the authors' assertion that insoluble dilemmas are inevitable as we try to adhere to the attitudes and values discussed in the previous chapter?

If a mother who is abusing drugs wants to get treatment, it is readily available because most residential treatment programs make provisions for the children.

A choice that is made after a person has been given all the relevant information about an issue or treatment is considered:

Treatment is said to be mandated when:

Self-determination is at the top of the professional values list for the National Association of Social Workers.

Although one can never generalize about the values of a country, in the United States we do seem to place a large emphasis on:

Give one example of the way in which a human service worker's view of human nature might influence the kind of treatment program he or she would suggest for a teenager who has committed a crime. (Refer to the theories of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau or Gilligan or Miller.)