Legal and Ethical Dilemmas

Any of us who work in the field of sexuality education are going to have our ethics challenged when it comes to meeting our legal requirements (mandated notification here in Australia).
I am interested in how others make sense of the issues that they confront. For example do you ALWAYS notify when you find out (or suspect) that someone under the legal age of consent is engaging in intercourse? Do you always suggest a police report if someone with an intellectual disability sexually assaults another person ( touches a staff member on the breast)? Do you follow the literal representation of legislation or do you sometimes follow a subjective interpretation? How do you get advice?

What about switching off? If you notice things when you are online after work hours - do you act on them or let them go. Do your ethical dilemmas disappear when your working day stops?

If you want to explore some of these issues you may want to come to the ShineSa forum on May 1st called Sex, Health and the Law

Professionals working with young people, the disability community, or people from diverse

cultural backgrounds sometimes fi nd themselves unsure about how the law applies to some

aspects of sexual behaviour. This means that they can be unsure about how to proceed in

providing information, guidelines, or moral and practical support to their clients and colleagues

concerning their legal sexual rights and responsibilities.

This forum will explore:

• key areas of law which relate to sexual behaviours and health

• some of the ‘grey areas’ in sexual law and their impact for workers and their clients

• the positive role of the law in helping inform healthy sexual behaviours and relationships

• key questions posed to the panel and facilitators by attendees

Panel members will include:

• Dr Peter Chamberlain: Senior Clinical Psychologist, Owenia House

• Trish Johnson: Criminal Lawyer, Legal Services Commission

• Detective Sergeant Peter Rodney, Sexual Crime Investigation Branch, SAPOL

When: 1 May 2013 (Wednesday)
Where: GP Plus Health Care Centre, 64c Woodville Road, Woodville
(Parking off Bower Street)
Time: 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Cost: $20 (invoice issued on receipt of the enrolment form)

CLICK HERE to go the online enrollment form BUT HURRY - ENROLMENT CLOSES THIS FRIDAY

Sex and Ethics Resource

ShineSA has recently added the new resource 'Sex and Ethics: The sexual ethics education program for young people.'Moira Carmody : PALGRAVE Macmillon Australia ( 2009)

This is a great resource that aims to promote ethical. non violent relathionships of young women and men aged 16 - 25 years. This is a 6 week program with activities, handouts, overheads etcetc.

If you are running programs with young people it is well worth a look. Come on in and check it out.

ETHICS

Hello everyone: Its been a long time since I posted and I apologise:

However I have been doing some things that I would like to blog about.

I attended the 'Its Time: Creating a future free from violence - men's responsibilities' forum last Friday the 22nd August. One thing that really struck me was a key note speaker who spoke about the Ethics in delivering services - not in terms of 'what are my ethics?' but in terms of 'what are the ethics of this person that they are showing them to society in this particular way?' For instance: Is a man being violent because he has an ethic of 'an eye for an eye' or because he has an ethic that 'power shouldn't be taken from people therefore I will take it back".


I might not be very clear to you about this but what it gave me was a way to find 'goodness' to work on with people BEFORE I decide on thier fate. Maybe we DO have similar ethics but dont display them in the same way. Maybe discovering a persons ethics (not thier behaviour) is a way to start sometimes.


What got me started on ETHICS was some research into ETHICS for a lecture that I had to deliver: The main thing that I found out for myself was: ( and this can be described by some formal terminology -go here at the Galilean Library - it is a really easy to read intro to ethics)

The main thing I have been rethinking though is this:
Metaethics: where do my ethical notions come from and what they mean? What do I think is good?
Normative ethics: What principles tell me my moral behaviour —and what does not.
Applied ethics: How do I apply these in a dilemma of moral dimension.

Believe it or not these simple questions along with attending the forum have got me rethinking many things.

If you want to hear a cool podcast on 'Is killing wrong" ( go here - to the BBC Open U ethics bites podcast.

Also if you want to be part of discussing ethical dilemmas in youth work go here to the Youth Action and Policy NSW website - youth work ethics blog. IT IS GREAT