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In this essay, I will discuss the ethical dilemmas that may arise in health and social care settings when attempting to balance individual rights and duty of care. Ethical dilemmas arise because care practitioners are supporting individuals to live their lives the way they want to but this also may conflict with their professional duty of care.
Duty of care is “the legal obligation to safeguard others from harm while they are in your care, using your services, or exposed to your activities” (definition of 'duty of care', 2020).
Confidentiality in the world of health and social care means not releasing information about a service user to anyone who either shouldn’t know or has no need to know (confidentiality in Health and Social Care, 2018). For example, Jolanda is 75 years old she has a good relationship with her son, and he visits every day, however, Jolanda tells her home carer that her son has asked her for money again so she thinks that she should give him the money. Jolanda has expressed to her home carer that she doesn’t want her son to know that she told the carer. This is an ethical dilemma balancing between the individual’s right to confidentiality and duty of care because the carer has been told private information by Jolanda and has been specifically told not to tell her son, but her carer also must make sure that Jolanda isn’t being taken advantage of. Conflicts could arise if the carer investigates like they are supposed to like the son could feel accused and think that his mother has accused him of stealing/ taking advantage of his mother. This could lead to him losing his relationship with his mother and as a result of this Jolanda would feel incredibly isolated at the loss of the relationship between her and her son. Alternatively, Jolanda could lose trust and a relationship with her carer, and Jolanda could potentially be in danger of falling or having. An accident as she would feel like she couldn’t ask her carer for anything. Jolanda’s carer could share his perspective and this would help Jolanda to understand why her carer would be worried, therefore the son wouldn’t have to be involved and the chance of conflict arising will decrease significantly.
Ethical dilemmas can arise when trying to balance the duty of care and managing own values. For example, Lina is 23 and has a learning disability. She has found out that she is pregnant and wants to have a termination, however, Lina is scared and has asked her support worker to go with her, but the support worker has religious beliefs that go against it. This is an ethical dilemma because Lina’s social worker must help Lina with whatever she is struggling with, but it collides with the social worker’s religious beliefs. Conflicts could arise in this situation because the social worker could refuse to go with Lina and could even try to convince Lina to not go through with the termination.
Risk-taking can cause an ethical dilemma in many ways. For example, Holly is 34 years old and has a heart condition, however, she has fallen pregnant. This is an ethical dilemma as it is well within Holly’s right to have a family and be pregnant but there are many risks. Some of the risks are that your blood pressure can increase very quickly an epidural during pregnancy could cause a significant drop in your blood pressure and some heart conditions can be passed down through families or develop in the womb (being pregnant with a heart condition, 2020).
Rights versus responsibilities can be an ethical dilemma because as individuals we are given the right to choose. Lilly is 21 and has a 7-month-old baby, Lilly cannot find a babysitter to look after her baby while she goes out, but she wants to. This is balancing the duty of care and individual rights because Lilly has to put her responsibilities before her rights to keep her baby from harm or abuse.
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