Ethical Dilemmas in Human Services: Models, Principles, and Theories

Ethical Dilemas
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Introduction
Ethics or moral philosophy is s a branch of philosophy that deals with putting down systems and
recommending what is right and what is wrong in the different instance. It deals with the
responsibilities, the human behavior and what people will do under different circumstances.
Body
In whatever people are involved in they are bound to be controlled by the rules of right or wrong
and this specifically determines how they tend to deal with different situations. Human services
professionals are not set apart from the consequences of their actions. Human services
professionals for instance, among many other professionals, are bound to find themselves in
instances that require that the ethical decision making. Instances such as those requiring mercy
killing or euthanasia, or when the line between life and death is thin or those that require a rapid
response- are classical examples. However, that is bound to morals and rules that define what
should be done and how it should be done.
The process of decision making in itself entails coming up with alternatives and choosing the
best alternative among these. There are several models that have been developed to illustrate the
ethical decision-making process. These models are divided into normative, descriptive and
prospective models. The normative models ate toes models in which emphasize or elicit the ways
and means by which the decision makers should do their activities in the decision making the
process so as to achieve the ultimate conclusion. On the other hand, the descriptive models are
angled upon empirical evidence in line with how decision makers actually perform the stated
activities in the process of decision making. The perspective models, on the other hand, tend to

consider empirical evidence in an attempt to help the ethical decision maker make a decision
depending on the complexity of the particular situation.
Ethical decision models are influenced by a variety of factors in the current society. The
decision-making process has been influenced by a variety of factors that include: an increasingly
technological society; the changing fabric of our society; the increase of knowledge and the
proportion of resources that are allocated for human services.
One of the ethical decision-making models is the issue-contingent models by Jones (1991). This
model asserts that ethical decisions must have moral intensity for it to be appropriate. Moral
intensity is a combination of various factors that include: the magnitude of the consequences;
social consensus; the probability of the effect; the temporal immediacy; the proximity and the
concertation of effect.
The magnitude of consequences is basically defined as the total harm or benefit that comes into
play from a specific moral action that is identified. Social consensus, on the other hand, is
defined as the level of comparison or agreement that an alternative already presented is either
evil or is good notwithstanding. The probability of effect conversely describes the probability
that the action will actually take place and will lead to harm or will provide expected benefits.
Temporal immediacy is described as the time present between the actual action and the
consequences of the moral actions identified. Proximity describes the feeling of closeness or
togetherness that the moral agent encompasses for the victims or the beneficiaries of the intended
action. In conclusion, the concentration of effect basically defines the inverse function of the
individuals who are affected by the moral act.