The "I Can't Believe There's No Abortion Thread" Part Deux: Electric Boogaloo

[MissThundercat]

Maybe you can help me with my coursework:

Ethical dilemma of a 13 year old girl who found out she was pregnant (at least the 3 OTC tests told her) and told her social worker. The girl trusts no one else but the social worker. Girl hasn't gone to any doctors and hasn't told her parents (she doesn't trust them), but I can tell girl wants an abortion. Should the SW violate trust (she cited confidentiality principles) and tell her parents?

[Kepler]

Maybe you can help me with my coursework:

Ethical dilemma of a 13 year old girl who found out she was pregnant (at least the 3 OTC tests told her) and told her social worker. The girl trusts no one else but the social worker. Girl hasn't gone to any doctors and hasn't told her parents (she doesn't trust them), but I can tell girl wants an abortion. Should the SW violate trust (she cited confidentiality principles) and tell her parents?

SW should never violate client's trust unless her health is seriously in danger. SW should talk to client, advise her of the law, answer all questions, be supportive. If SW has a statutory requirement to inform parents, she should advise client of this and talk to her honestly about what the client can expect.

For example, say client lives in some medieval Republican state like TX that passes a law that SW must tell parents and authorities if she "has a reasonable suspicion client has the intention of seeking an abortion." SW should immediately tell client this and advise her that all of their conversations should be about a theoretical person who may face this situation in the future.

Never ever violate your client's trust unless it is for her physical well-being. Your client is more important than the state.

[unofan]

Maybe you can help me with my coursework:

Ethical dilemma of a 13 year old girl who found out she was pregnant (at least the 3 OTC tests told her) and told her social worker. The girl trusts no one else but the social worker. Girl hasn't gone to any doctors and hasn't told her parents (she doesn't trust them), but I can tell girl wants an abortion. Should the SW violate trust (she cited confidentiality principles) and tell her parents?

Unless legally obligated to do so, no.

[The Sicatoka]

The SW should not break the law.

[Kepler]

The SW should not break the law.

The SW should know the law well enough to evade it.

People > Nazis. I advise SW not to break the law because I don't want her arrested, tortured, and murdered in prison by the right wingers who draw up these laws. As for the law itself, I could not care less about violating its spirit. It is an act of violence by legislators who are only in power through criminality. No law passed by Republicans has ethical value any longer. We know what you are.

End the Right. Save the world.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Can't imagine the damage done to the girl if the only person in the world she trust blatantly violates her trust (regardless of the circumstances). It would be...well...I can't think of the right word. Let's just say it'd be bad. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if it's irreversible, but from an ethical perspective could a SW knowingly and purposefully cause that type of damage to a client? Seems like there would be a lot of loopholes regardless of what the law says.

I'm way over my skis on this topic so I'll hang up now and listen to your replies.

[SJHovey]

I think this is a harder question that some of you give it credit for being.

My first inclination is that I would hold the information in trust, unless compelled by law to disclose it to someone. However, I think there are a couple of other factors the social worker has to take into account.

First, I think one of Kepler's things on here, I'm pretty sure, is to argue that everyone of the age of this child has an undeveloped brain. While I don't necessarily subscribe to that, there is no doubt that the SW has to fully evaluate the capability of this child, mentally and emotionally, to even make a decision on this issue.

Second, how do we know that the disclosure to the SW isn't an effort on the part of the girl to tell someone about this problem? Maybe she doesn't feel comfortable, or is scared to tell her parents, so she has told the SW in either a conscious or subconscious attempt to get the information to her parents?

[psych]

I think this is a harder question that some of you give it credit for being.

My first inclination is that I would hold the information in trust, unless compelled by law to disclose it to someone. However, I think there are a couple of other factors the social worker has to take into account.

First, I think one of Kepler's things on here, I'm pretty sure, is to argue that everyone of the age of this child has an undeveloped brain. While I don't necessarily subscribe to that, there is no doubt that the SW has to fully evaluate the capability of this child, mentally and emotionally, to even make a decision on this issue.

Second, how do we know that the disclosure to the SW isn't an effort on the part of the girl to tell someone about this problem? Maybe she doesn't feel comfortable, or is scared to tell her parents, so she has told the SW in either a conscious or subconscious attempt to get the information to her parents?

I suppose it depends on the state where this teenager resides. If it’s Michigan, since MissT lives there, a quick perusal shows that one parent must sign off on the abortion, unless it’s determined the teenager is “mature enough” to bypass that requirement, which looks like requires a judge’s order to do so. I won’t speak to what that means in Michigan, but I’m not certain the social worker alone can make that determination.
I reckon this social worker has amazing rapport with her client, or otherwise she would never have been the first and only person to know. So, with that rapport comes great power, and responsibility, over her client’s decision-making on this matter. If the client tells the social worker she doesn’t want to tell her parents, then that’s the social worker’s starting point. She will have to exhaust all avenues to determine whether her client is “mature enough” to bypass the one parent sign-off rule (again, assuming this is Michigan since MissT resides there), which may require utilizing other professionals, like a psychologist, who would also of course be bound by law to not break confidentiality unless required to do so. Again, I don’t know what Michigan requires on the matter of determining a child’s maturity in this matter.
The only thing I could think of that would require involving law enforcement, etc., is the age of the child. Looks like Michigan law considers any sexual activity by someone under 16 statutory rape, since there doesn’t appear to be a relative age law, but I could be reading that wrong. I’m certain the social worker is a mandated reporter, and utilizing her rapport with her client, she’d have to gently let the client know that there will have to be an investigation into the sexual incident. Now, the client doesn’t have to reveal anything, but the social worker would still have to gather all the relevant information the client is willing to tell her, and file a report with the proper authorities, to cover her as-. That also doesn’t have to involve the parents, unless Dad is the named perpetrator.
At the end of the day, a good therapist/social worker/psychologist rolls with the client’s wishes. Until the client says “I want to tell my parents”, the social worker rolls with bypassing that requirement until she’s exhausted all other avenues. And a good therapist wouldn’t lie to her client, so she’d tell her relatively early on that it may be possible that one parent has to eventually get involved.

Edit: If this took place in a state with relative age laws, so the sex was consensual, and the state didn’t require a parent to sign off on the abortion, if I were her therapist, I would never mention telling her to tell her parents unless she explicitly brought it up. I think rapport is paramount to a good therapeutic relationship, and if rapport is there, the client will lead the conversation to that point anyways if she wants to do so. If not, and her parents are never brought up throughout the process, then her beliefs behind that, while important, are irrelevant to the abortion conversation at hand.

[Kepler]

First, I think one of Kepler's things on here, I'm pretty sure, is to argue that everyone of the age of this child has an undeveloped brain

Girls are vegetables until they're 25.

Boys are vegetables until they're 35.

That's just science ^(TM).

[unofan]

I think this is a harder question that some of you give it credit for being.

No, it's not. I'm an attorney, I keep all kinds of **** in confidence even if I'd rather spill it to the world.

Absent explicit permission or an exception to the rule, you don't violate attorney-client privilege. You don't violate doctor-patient privilege. You don't violate therapist-client privilege. You don't violate priest-penitent privilege. The end.

If you can't do that, don't go into the profession.

[SJHovey]

No, it's not. I'm an attorney, I keep all kinds of **** in confidence even if I'd rather spill it to the world.

Absent explicit permission or an exception to the rule, you don't violate attorney-client privilege. You don't violate doctor-patient privilege. You don't violate therapist-client privilege. You don't violate priest-penitent privilege. The end.

If you can't do that, don't go into the profession.

I'm not even certain all of your examples are the same. I'm pretty sure that ethical rules that most doctors follow require them to keep the privilege, but only commensurate with the child's age, and certainly not in instances where the health of the child is at risk.

[Kepler]

This is real.

1. Any woman who votes Republican is ignorant or insane.

2. It sure would be a shame if that site was completely overwhelmed with spam, false reports, denial of service attacks, and pointed messages stating exactly what we think of these people.

[Kepler]

[ScoobyDoo]

So theoretically a man in Texas could impregnate a woman and then turn her in for seeking an abortion and be rewarded with a 10 grand bounty?

https://***********/caslernoel/statu...96328201048068

So, basically we relinquished control of Afghanistan to the Republicans. Why are they *****ing about it?

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

D&Cs are super fun.

some white women could die from this.

https://***********/indyfromspace/st...928692234?s=21