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Ethical Dilemmas

Name
Institution of Affiliation
Date
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Ethical Dilemmas

People encounter various issues that are of diverse magnitudes and these issues may
sometimes undermine people’s abilities and potentials and push them to the fringes of life. The
situations that people go through ranging from their pasts and the people they relate to presently
has caused many to be faced with different ethical dilemmas in their lives. After analysis of two
ethical dilemmas, one, there was a couple which was about to have their first child. The woman
developed complications during birth and it reached a devastating point where the doctors could
only save one person, either the child or the wife. The decision was to be made by the husband
who was now in an ethical dilemma of not knowing which is the morally right decision to make.
Another dilemma was about a family who had only one son whom they loved and cherished
abundantly but the family was an atheist family. It reached a point that the son encountered the
Christian religion through a friend and was greatly convinced about becoming a strong Christian
and believing in God. The parents were strongly opposing the idea and told their son to either
choose to believe in God or to be disowned by the parents and abandon him. The child was
therefore in an ethical dilemma not knowing what is the morally right decision to make.

Counsellors’ Beliefs and The Impact on The Ethical Nature of Counselling Relationship

Different people have different beliefs and this could impact the nature of ethical
relationships especially a person in the counselling profession. For instance, in the first scenario,
the counsellor may have the belief that any decision that the husband takes will automatically
lead to the termination of life of either the mother or the child. The counsellor may be sees that
as murder and maybe he considers it morally wrong according to his beliefs. This will therefore
impact the nature of the ethical counselling relationship with the client and thus the counsellor
may find himself in a situation that entails resolving conflicts between ethical priorities.

In the second scenario, the counsellor may be believing in God and the aspect of religion.
Therefore, the belief may affect the ethical nature of the relationship with the client. On the other
hand, the counsellor may also be an atheist therefore the ethical nature of the relationship may be
impacted. Anti-discriminatory policies as proposed by the Australian counselling association
such as client respect, client autonomy and counsellor awareness may be put to a greater test in
this circumstance. The counsellor thus must exercise competency and offer a non-judgmental
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professional service that is free from discrimination and honoring the individuality of the client
as highlighted in Australian counselling association.

Ethical Principles Relevant To The above Ethical Dilemmas

Anti-discriminatory Practice

According to the Australian counselling association code of ethics, anti-discriminatory

practices such as client respect which states that counsellors should work with clients in a way
that affirm both the common humanity and the uniqueness of each individual, client autonomy
and counsellors’ awareness should also be of utmost importance also. The counsellor therefore
must practice these codes in both scenario since the circumstances can create an environment
that may entice or induce the counsellor to be discriminatory especially in the second dilemma
where the son wants to be a Christian yet the counsellor’s beliefs is the contrary. Client respect
must be observed especially in the case of the husband who has to choose between mother and
son.

Responsibility to The Client

Code of ethics such as client safety should be taken into consideration to ensure that
clients do not suffer physical, emotional or psychological harm during counselling sessions or as
an outcome of counselling sessions as stipulated in the Australian counselling association. Both
dilemmas indicate that the counsellor must ensure safety of the client as the husband is already in
emotional turmoil and also the son too is in emotional scourge as a result of parent’s stand on his
beliefs.

Reporting Issues

Reporting issues that may arise in both scenarios is the issue of management and
confidentiality. As per the Australian counselling association, counsellors are required to protect
the clients in term of disclosure of information. Any unauthorized disclosure of information may
lead to the injuring of the reputation of the client in the eyes of right-thinking members of the
society. The counsellor can be tempted to disclose information but he or she must understand the
gravity and the catastrophic repercussion of his consequence and demonstrate competency in
case such a scenario arises.
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Responsibility is also another issue that may arise. As per the code of conduct, the
counsellors owe a duty of care and responsibility not to mislead or misguide the client. The
counsellor must therefore demonstrate his competency, experience and qualifications in such
situations by for example, the responsibility to keep all clients records safe and secure. This will
ensure client safety through enhancing privacy or confidentiality and client self-determination by
ensuring there is no abuse of power on the side of the counsellor.

Course of Actions To Resolve The Ethical Dilemma’s

In the first dilemma, the course of action I would take is to advise the husband to save the
mother even though he really desired the child. In this way, they will be able to bear more
children once the wife recovers. As for emotional turmoil, I would encourage them that this does
not account to murder even though the husband may think it’s murder but rather it was
circumstances that were unavoidable. I would give them stories of other couple who have gone
through the same ordeal and they came out strongly and they now have not only happy but
healthy families. In the second dilemma, I would encourage the parents to let the child have
freedom of choice as long as nothing worse has happened or will happen to him as evidenced by
other people who have taken the same route. I would encourage the parents to rather support the
child decisions especially if there is greater good.

Andrea the counsellor should in the first scenario, counsel the husband to make the
choice to save the wife since that is the only reasonable and hard decision to make. Andrea
should not stop at that point but rather go further and offer emotional support to the husband
because of the gravity of the decision he has to make. In the second dilemma, Andrea should
counsel the family to support the child’s decision as per his experience so that the child may
grow a happy person and not to tie his failures to the decisions of the parents.
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References

Audet, C. T., & Everall, R. D. (2010). Therapist self-disclosure and the therapeutic relationship:
A phenomenological study from the client perspective. British Journal of Guidance &
Counselling, 38(3), 327-342.

Babalola, O., Grant-Kels, J. M., & Parish, L. C. (2012). Ethical dilemmas in journal
publication. Clinics in dermatology, 30(2), 231-236.

Bond, T. (2015). Standards and ethics for counselling in action. Standards and Ethics for
Counselling in Action, 1-352.

Molyneux, S., Kamuya, D., & Marsh, V. (2010). Community members employed on research
projects face crucial, often under-recognized, ethical dilemmas. The American Journal of
Bioethics, 10(3), 24-26

Sivis-Cetinkaya, R. (2015). Ethical dilemmas of Turkish counsellors: A critical incidents

study. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 43(4), 476-491.
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