Short Essay 2

Short Essay 1

Review exercise

<p>Using a problem-based focus, this subject explores our ethical duties towards vulnerable adults and children, with a particular focus on the professional responsibilities of health and human services workers, and justice professionals. We will consider the ethics of intervention into the lives of vulnerable people, canvassing issues of legal capacity, autonomy, paternalism, coercion, privacy and human rights. The subject also examines associated legal duties of care, including good samaritanism.</p>

School of Social Work and Arts

Division of Students

Centre of Islamic Studies and Civilisation

School of Rural Medicine

School of Allied Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences

Centre for Law & Justice

School of Information and Communication Studies

School of Dentistry and Medical Sciences

School of Education

School of Policing Studies

School of Nursing, Paramedicine and Healthcare Sciences

School of Computing, Mathematics and Engineering

Division of Learning and Teaching

Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences

Faculty of Science and Health

School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences

Charles Sturt University Engineering

Centre for Customs and Excise Studies

School of Indigenous Australian Studies

Australian Graduate School of Policing Security

School of Psychology

Faculty of Arts and Education

Division of Student Success

School of Business

School of Theology

Centre of Rural Dentistry and Oral Health

ETH402 - Vulnerability and the Ethics of Intervention

Vulnerability and the Ethics of Intervention

be able to consider legal requirements that determine whether someone is capable of giving consent, and when intervention is permissible in cases where it is not possible to obtain consent; and

be able to develop and apply an ethical approach to professional practice;

be able to evaluate when an individual's right to self-determination entails that they must be left alone, and how human rights, more generally, govern the duty to intervene and the duty to respect others' autonomy;

be able to analyse whether paternalistic intervention in the lives of vulnerable adults and children is ever morally permissible, and whether in terms of duty of care there is ever a professional responsibility to intervene;

be able to consider when it is necessary to respect the 'dignity of risk' of vulnerable parties (i.e. their right to take reasonable risks), while considering the impact on families and the wider community in allowing risky choices;

be able to critically evaluate opposing viewpoints, and engage in productive debates, concerning law and policy regarding paternalistic intervention.

be able to identify and evaluate ways of protecting the dignity of a vulnerable party in the course of paternalistic intervention, by harnessing the party's own agency as far as possible, and minimising distress;

ETH402-60-D-W