Friday, April 4, 2008

Thomas Beattie's Oprah interview

Thomas Beattie, a transgendered man, currently pregnant with his first child appeared on Oprah yesterday. Did you watch? I did, and had a few thoughts about his story and how it relates to social work.
First, I am sure many of you will join me in total disgust about his treatment by the medical community. EIGHT doctors refused to treat him and/or help him get pregnant - not because it was outside of their scope of practice, but because it was against their beliefs or their staff was not comfortable with it, or any other myriad of bad excuses. Did they have the right to do that? And do we as social workers have the right to cast off those that give us the willies or live against our beliefs - religious, moral or otherwise? I would say that we do not. The tenets of our profession are clear (as are, I am sure the medical community's) and it seems to me the time to reconcile our personal beliefs with the requirements of our profession is before we enter it, not when we get a client in front of us that lives outside of our own personal moral code. Treating clients with respect and meeting them where they are seem to be two of the most basic ethical standards we as social workers are required to practice. Now, clearly if where the client is is outside of our scope of practice, then our job is to find someone who can help them competently - we would certainly not expect a general physician to perform open heart surgey. That is a very different issue than simply turning someone away without an offer of assistance because you simply don't like them.
I hope Thomas Beattie and his family encountered a social worker along the way, and that the social worker demonstrated the importance of adhearing to a Code of Ethics meant to help and serve, not harm and degrade. And I hope his story serves to remind us all that the next client we encounter might be someone with a set of circumstances we never even imagined, and that our job is not to judge the client based on our moral code, but to meet the client where they are and to offer assistance in any way possible, even when we are challenged. In my opinion, that is the mark of a true professional.

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