Prepared by Van Tran

BEING FAIR

• Participants:

- Dutch SW student’s fieldwork practice in a rehabilitation dept of a hospital in Vietnam

- Client: Trung – a boy who suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and lung problem; and his family.

- A social worker who gained Social Work knowledge from the internet

- A physiotherapist

Case 3.3: Ethics of Right vs Ethics of Care

• About Trung’s condition:

- He is the only child of the family.

- He has beautiful penmanship and he won first prize in his writing class.

- His mother has to stay at school with him during school-time.

- The main financial source is from the family’s own farm where grow rice, potatoes and tea. The mother is not able to work outside due to Trung’s needs of care.

- He likes playing soccer with other children.

- There is no support for the family.

• Dilemma:

- Trung’s mother wanted to know if there would be an improvement in her son’s condition.

- The physiotherapist, instead of telling the truth, said that he did not know and Trung had to keep doing exercise.

- The truth is that the improvement is not possible for someone who suffers from DMD; not to mention Trung has lung problem.

- The physiotherapist did not want to reveal the truth because it may sadden Trung and his family; and it may weaken his muscles. He thought it would be better if they didn’t know the truth. They supposed Trung would spend the rest of his life miserable knowing that.

• The SW student’s opinion:

- It contradicted her SW ethics.

- She supposed that the medical staff could not determine how Trung would spend the rest of his life, happy or sad?

- Technically, the medical staff deprived Trung and his family of the right to know the truth.

- Difference in intercultural sensitivity or lack of knowledge about coping with psychological problems?

- “Every person deserves to know the truth about their medical situation.”

• Commentary 1 – Social work in Vietnam:

- In Vietnam, Social Work is a new discipline which was only introduced as an official training field in 2004.

- At the beginning, practice was given a very limited amount of time.

- It is understandable that the student was shocked because she was experiencing a different practice context, specifically Vietnam.

- The commentator supposed knowing the sad truth would affect the treatment effort and the family would lose their hope.

- The question remained: Is it an ethical decision to do something that you can see is harmful to your patients or that will create another problem?

- Her answer: if you do not know how to help your patients to cope, it’s better not to make any decisions.

- The social workers’ task is to provide and share adequate knowledge and skills => right ethical decisions.

- It’s important to understand the practice context where the dilemma comes from.

- The social workers can share professional knowledge and skills in ethical decision-making process.

• Commentary 2 – Social work in Australia:

- The student has rightly considered to question the difference between her own values and the medical staff and teachers’ values.

- He supposed that the “right to know” might attach to the parents and not necessarily to the child.

- The interaction between Trung and the physiotherapist resembles a description of the ethics of care in practice provided by Sevenhuijsen (1998).

- Trung’s parents are engaged in practical care for him that enables him to do as much as he can.

- A practical connection can be made between the ethics of rights and the ethics of care.

• Commentary 2 – Social work in Australia:

- The student has rightly considered to question the difference between her own values and the medical staff and teachers’ values.

- He supposed that the “right to know” might attach to the parents and not necessarily to the child.

- The interaction between Trung and the physiotherapist resembles a description of the ethics of care in practice provided by Sevenhuijsen (1998).

- Trung’s parents are engaged in practical care for him that enables him to do as much as he can.

- A practical connection can be made between the ethics of rights and the ethics of care.

• Participants:

- An illegal Philippines immigrant who did not have a proper work-visa.

- The immigrant’s Filipino-Japanese mixed child without birth registration.

- Social worker at public welfare office.

- Chief officer at public welfare office.

Case 4.1: Do illegal migrants or inhabitants have no human right?

• Situation:

- The Filipino mother was unemployed and living illegally in Japan and she was not legally married to her boyfriend.

- Her child was not registered at birth; though, she only speaks Japanese.

- They were being sheltered by a charity organization and they needed income security as their income level was below the national poverty line.

- However, she and her daughter were detained by police and sent back to Philippines because she was violating Japanese migration laws.

• Dilemma:

- If the social worker set them free from his office, they would not be deported yet they would not receive any mean of social support.

- Foreigners are not eligible for public assistance.

- When trying to find appropriate support for the woman, the chief officer reported this case to the police.

- The social worker could not do anything to protect her human right. But at the same time, he is a civil servant with legal obligation to uphold the civil law.

• Commentator 1:

- Who’s the victim and who’s the criminal?

- Was her mother solely responsible for the birth of her child?

- The father is one of the criminal because he abandoned his responsibility but did the Japanese civil servants and authority know about this?

- Maybe the father is friend with the civil servant which may explain their decision to ignore his role in this case.

- Was the attitude of the civil servants fair to the girl in terms of social work ethics?

- According to Japanese nationality laws, the child takes its father’s nationality.

- The civil servants could not deprive the girl of her nationality.

- Gender and ethnic prejudice can easily result in the exclusion of illegal migrants from the realm of justice.

- Question: Do illegal migrants or inhabitants have no human rights?

• Commentator 2:

- Codes of ethics do not make exclusion, governments do. Illegal migrants (in some cases even legal labor migrants) are often treated as non-persons. Hence, their children often do not legally exist.

- Yet, Japan signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), committed themselves to “ensure the rights of each child within their jurisdiction”.

- The best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

- The right of the child is cared by both parents, regardless of their marital status.

- Enforcing migration laws is not social worker’s or social welfare agencies’ job.

- It’s their obligation to ensure the well-being of persons in need, whatever their legal status.

- Social workers anywhere should engage in efforts to challenge national policies pertaining to “illegal” migrants in general.

- However, illegal labor migration is a universal phenomenon, a revision of national and international codes of ethics may be in order.

THEORY PART: BEING FAIR

CLASSIC DISCUSSION

Theoretical schools of thought

Deontological

- Good or bad

- Right or wrong

Teleological

- Consequences?

- Benefits or harms?

Utilitarianism

action is morally right when it promotes the maximum good.

UTILITARIANISM

Theoretical schools of thought

Good-aggregative

promotes the greatest total

Locus-aggregative

- total quantity of good

- number of receivers

UTILITARIANISM

Theoretical schools of thought

act

near-future consequence

rule

long-term consequence

• One of social work’s principal virtue is its long-lasting preoccupation about the matter of fairness.

• Pursuing fairness in Social Work practices depends on various factors such as practice fields, organization’s culture and resource, countries, etc,…

• The pursuit of fairness is one of the most compelling elements of social work’s mission that distinguishes social work as a noble profession.

Conclusion

Thank youfor your attention!