Ethical Theories Of Life's Decision-Making Process

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1. Each moral theory holds a specific approach in how to handle life’s decisions. In the social work profession there are many ethical theories that drives our decision making process. Explained below are the top five most discussed ethical theories. Ethics of care, is a normative ethical theory. This theory about what makes action morally right or wrong. It is one of a cluster of normative ethical theories that were developed by feminists in the second half of the twentieth century. The ethics of care places at the center of moral inquiry the interdependence of humans and their responsibilities to each other, rather than individuals and their rights. Second, the ethics of care recognizes the equal moral worth of all persons, and holds that …show more content…
(Modernising Social Work and the Ethics of Care) As social worker, it’s our responsibilities to recognize and affirm practitioner self-understanding and aspirations and service-user evaluation of service quality. Then we go into Religious Ethics, also known as “safety/protection” ethics. The Religious Ethics area is concerned with the meaning of religion for the lives of persons are the ordering of societies, and therefore, with problems of the goof life, justice, and the common good. Religious ethics believe in the existence of God and divine values. Believers are convinced that religious faith and ethical morality are the same. Which creates debates when treating a client that is very religious. For example, abortions. If a client that is very religious seeks an abortion, it creates controversial for the client and social worker because it inflicts with their values. The decision would have to have concrete evidence and enough knowledge to go through with the decision to have the abortion. Humanistic Ethics, an idealistic view of human nature. Essentially positive, optimistic stance toward the …show more content…
Finally, Ethical Relativism. Relativism says that nothing is intrinsically right or wrong. Relativism rejects fixed moral rules, are based on context or situation and justify ethical decisions on the basis of the situation. Morals evolve and change with social norms over a period of time. It is popular in the present day because there is a belief that everyone should be tolerant towards others ' beliefs and views; this idea for freedom of speech implies that there are no ‘real’ absolute truths. Social worker believe that all human circumstances are different and therefore there is a need to have different moral rules for people. Relativism allows for the diversity that is present in the world, it understands that life is not black and white and that cultures may believe that their practice is more justifiable than other cultural practice, but by using relativist approach. This will allow for acceptance between different peoples. Many social workers like using the ethical relativism theory because it justifies a lot of the decision making process. Those are the top five ethical theories that social workers have to think about when making a

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