Searching for solutions to alcohol and other drug abuse during pregnancy: ethics, values, and constitutional principles.
Recent efforts to develop legal mechanisms to detect prenatal substance abuse and force pregnant women into drug-free conditions have precipitated ethical struggles for social workers. This article reviews relevant social work values and ethical issues, particularly the need to balance obligations to promote client self-determination, privacy, and access to chosen services with professional values that support coercive intervention to aid vulnerable people and to protect life. The constitutional principles that most affect coercive interventions--due process and equal protection--are reviewed. Recommendations are offered to guide ethical and legal social work for case interventions and policy development.
Andrews
A B
AB
College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, Columbia 29208.
Patterson
E G
EG
D000437:Alcoholism; D002961:Civil Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D032781:Codes of Ethics; D004989:Ethics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations; D026706:Paternalism; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D037841:Pregnant People; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012935:Social Justice; D012945:Social Values; D012947:Social Work; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D035862:Vulnerable Populations