Term Paper on "Catholic Child Sex Abuse Handling"

Term Paper 8 pages (2831 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Mental Health Ethics

The author of this report is asked to pick from several example scenarios and discuss the mental health and other ethics surrounding how to react to that particular situation and why. The scenario selected by the author of this report asks the author to evaluate a Catholic father that admits to having urges and attractions towards adolescent boys and he has gone so far as to even engineer opportunities to be around them. He has apparently not acted them yet and has thus not violated any laws. However, the amount of further disrepute this would bring on the church and of course the overall risk that he will act in the manner of a child predator eventually seems like a foregone conclusion if something is not done. While the role and job description of a counselor typically precludes a breach of confidentiality, the concept of "imminent danger to one's self or others" is clearly in play here and there is never a situation where engaging in sexual acts with an adolescent boy under the age of consent is acceptable and this is even without including the moral repercussions and implications, both Catholic-oriented and not.

Analysis

Catholic priests and other personnel acting in a predatory nature towards young boys and girls, usually the former, has been a pervasive problem within the Catholic Church over the years and decades. The problem is certainly not limited to Catholics or even churches in general but the Catholic Church has certainly been one of the flashpoints and epicenters of the problem (Lueger-Schuster). The problem with child pornography, child molestation and child abuse in general has become so entrenched and elaborate that

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virtual child porn is created and disseminated and there is even a national organization, albeit a group of pariahs, known as the National Man-Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA for short (DeYoung).

Even so, the cases above are rather clear-cut and the example cited for this particular report is very much shades of gray, and for a few different reasons. First, irrespective of the history with other offenders and the admissions of the priest in question, no crime has actually occurred unless the priest is obfuscating that. Second, counselors are almost never at liberty to divulge the transcript or subjects of a counseling session to anyone, whether it be police, family members or colleagues that the person works with or otherwise knows. There is always an exception for situations where a crime has definitely and provably occurred. For example, if a counselor finds out that a child is being abused and the police and/or Child Protection Service (or equivalent) agency is not always involved, reporting that to the police is not just allowed, it is often required under the "mandated reporter" provision (Henderson). There is no opaqueness or ambiguity to what is going on here except the fact that no offense has occurred yet, except that it is not known for sure if even that is true given that the priest may have simply not revealed that as of yet.

However, given that a crime has not technically happened yet, there are really three options that exist and none of them are all that clear-cut or easy to make. The first is to notify the police. This is probably the most ethical and prudent thing to do but very hard to justify from a counselor standpoint because no crime has occurred yet and thus there is not really something for the priest to be held on other than perhaps a mental hold due to the danger of himself or someone else getting hurt, with the "someone else" being the obvious provision in play. Notifying the church is another option but is also not a clear option for the same reason. However, so long as the counselor is clear about what has and what has not happened, then the church can make a choice that protects the children while at the same time does not violate the privacy of the people involved. The final option is to implore the priest himself to step out of his position so as to protect the children from being victimized. Of course, children are not able to consent to sex and it is never right for this to happen no matter who is involved. Also, as mentioned before, the level of trust and stature of the position demands that the priest step down so that no one gets hurt.

There are several ethical principles involved in this matter. The first general principle is the aforementioned principle of the fact that a crime has not technically occurred. Couple this with the fact that all of us have some sort of urges every day that we consider but discard. However, this principle is fairly easy to dismiss given that no normal person has sexual urges towards children and anyone that does and actually admits it, with an expectation of privacy or not, needs to get some help and should be removed from the situation so as to not allow someone to be victimized (Jones) (Tjersland).

This leads to the next principle in question as far as ethics goes and that is to act in the best interest of the children even if a crime has not yet occurred. As already stated, it is not normal, natural or safe if a person that is around children at all, let alone as much as a priest would be, to have these feelings and they need to be removed from that situation immediately so that no one gets hurt. It would be bad enough if the priest said nothing to anybody about the urges but it is clear that he has and there is no guarantee that he is being completely honest about not acting on his urges yet. There is a rather thin line between manufacturing a chance to victimize a child and actually acting on it. Just because a victim has not come forward does not mean there is not one. Children in particular are less likely to come forward as a victim when they are attacked and this is doubly true when they think they will in trouble for saying something and/or the person doing the victimizing is a person of authority or stature such as a parent, other family member or member of the church.

Another principle to keep in mind is that the priest is probably coming forward due to some modicum of guilt. This could just be because he is feeling these feelings and not because he actually acted on them but it could also be that he has indeed acted on them and just has not reached the point where he can admit it fully. Regardless, he needs stronger attention to fully address the problem. In the meantime, he needs to be removed from having access to children. A related principle could probably be called the "junkie" or "alcoholic" principle. In short, having a person be exposed and surrounded by what triggers and has allure to him or her is less than wise because the possibility of offending or reoffending in such a situation is almost a certainty at one point or another. For example, a current or prior addict of alcohol around a bar or other place where alcohol flows freely is not a good idea because it is tempting to the person. The same thing can be said of drugs in general, with the harder drugs like heroin, crack and methamphetamine being the worst (Strickland, and Smith).

The "junkie" principle is proven even more when it refers to situations where likeminded people are involved and surrounded by the same general stimuli. In other words, being in the situation is bad but so is being around people that are like-minded and/or are doing the same thing (or are thinking about it). It is unlikely that there is another priest doing the same thing in this situation but if there is, the chance of both/all of them eventually offending is nearly certain due to the comfort and validation, however sick it may be, that the person may get because someone else feels the same sick urges as they do. However, the other side of that coin is when people know of this sickness, even if it is just one person that is potentially doing it, and nothing is being done about it. When speaking of drugs and alcohol, this applies more to people that drink casually around a drug addict or that gives money freely to a drug user. Even if the addict is not being directly urged to imbibe in alcohol or to use their drug or choice, they are still being urged in one way or another to reoffend and give into their urges. The same basic thing as the latter is being done here. Allowing a man that has these urges, which are always illegal to act on and never moral in any sense of the word, to continue to have exposure… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Catholic Child Sex Abuse Handling" Assignment:

“

Tasks:

- Consider one of the following case studies and set out the ethical landscape for it. What do you see as the ethical issues in these cases? Why? What information is needed, and what is given in order to make a proper decision? What principles or approaches are relevant to that decision? How would you handle the case?

- Your comments about resolution should take the form of suggestions for which you can give reasons. One important academic journal for the field is Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology. There is also an on-line Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, edited at McMaster University. Since you could become a greater expert in the area you choose than either the instructor or the marker, you should engage in careful exposition of your subject. Do not however, assume that the reader of your paper is completely uninformed about the area of discussion

* FOCUS on clarity and setting up the ethical landscape explicitly !

Options:

a. Recognizing the stressful and demanding nature of the clerical life, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of N. has appointed you to provide counseling to troubled priests. Using the service is purely voluntary, although strong encouragement is given to priests who have had some prior problems (e.g. drinking problems) to use it. Father X has come to you, and has admitted that over the years he has had to struggle with a powerful sexual attraction to young men and boys. He does not seem to be a predator by nature, but he has disclosed that he has engineered opportunities to have sex with altar servers in some previous postings. He has never admitted this to any archdiocesan official (at least not outside the confessional), and he is struggling once again with an attraction to certain early adolescents in his current parish. Actually acting on this attraction would, of course be an offense under the Criminal Code, and bring (more) disrepute to the Church. What should you do about this?

b. Mr. Y has been under treatment with you for deep bouts of depression. When he has been depressed in the past, he has had trouble complying with treatment provisions. To put it bluntly, once his mood improves and stabilizes, he goes off his medication. Lately, however, this tendency has been limited by the fact the prescribed anti-depressives have had little effect, and he has abandoned them even sooner. He has said that if he continues to feel this bad, he may as well just stop living, and he has considerable difficulty managing the activities of daily living. Only family pressure even gets him out of bed in the morning. You have raised the possibility of Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) with him. While he has shown some interest in it because of the reported success in cases of severe depression, he has also expressed serious misgivings: *****I hear it scrambles your brain,***** he says, and *****people lose many of their memories from all stages of their lives.***** Would you pursue the possibility of this treatment further with him? If not, why not? If so, why, and how would you deal with the misgivings? What rights does Mr. Y have in the case? Are there any alternative therapies available in such cases? What would justify proposing one?

c. As a psychiatric nurse in a hospital, you have been assigned the duty of administering prescribed medication to Ms. Z, for her extreme and debilitating anxiety. Because you have had the opportunity to observe her on every shift you have worked since her admission, you have noticed a distinct worsening of her condition. There has been both physical and mental/emotional deterioration since admission. While a small amount of the decline took place before the medication was prescribed, it has moved on much more quickly since the course of medication began. Your fellow nurses have also noticed it, and the symptoms, such as insomnia, severe mood swings and violent outbursts have made patient management a real problem. You suspect that the medication may be involved, and you have taken the matter up with the attending psychiatrist, Dr. Q, who insists that the condition cannot be as bad as it is presented, and that whatever irregularities there are will stabilize once the patient becomes acclimatized to the medication. However, Dr. Q has many patients and so has only carried out brief, cursory examinations of Ms. Z since the medication began. The psychiatric resident supports Dr. Q*****s view, noting the doctor is the local authority on the treatment of this condition. What would you do about this case?

d. You have been working for some time with a famous (and award winning) laboratory scientist, Professor L., who has been diagnosed with Bipolar Personality Disorder. As is common with the condition, he has periods both of extreme elation, and deep depression, and sometimes the transitions between the periods are abrupt. His condition can be managed medically, but he has had the experience of achieving a great deal during the periods of elation. In fact he has told you that those have been the periods when he can do the most work, and solve the most difficult problems in his research. It appears that he is right about this. Consequently he goes off his medication whenever there is work pressure or he suspects that doing so will induce an up phase. He is quite definite that this action is necessary for his scientific success. Unfortunately, he is also an addictive personality and has a history of alcoholism. When he reaches his peak moods, he begins to binge drink and becomes abusive, even violent towards those with whom he lives and works. As the depressive phase sets in, the drinking continues, perhaps as an attempt to self-medicate. He becomes incoherent, misses appointments, and does embarrassing things when he does show up at a class or academic function. His work grinds to a halt, and he has been known to try to destroy some of the output of the peak-mood period. Colleagues have to cover for him in classes and make excuses on his behalf at conferences and lectures. His own sense of the futility of this depressive phase induces him to seek help. The chair of his department suspects that you have been seeing the man, and she has asked you to intervene, if you are seeing him, in order to ensure that his moods are kept even. Nevertheless, the department*****s promotional material always mentions this professor*****s achievements prominently. What should you do?

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