Journal of Social Work Values & Ethics

With the advancements made in medical technology, decisions that were once made with caution and information are now routinely handled in an automated fashion. When deconstructing the issues involved in prenatal genetic screening, we must ask, what are we screening for? This papers calls for social workers to play key roles as genetic counselors in health care settings.

This article examines how the dilemma regarding using disability labels to help people with disabilities access services versus promoting consumer self-determination that includes rejecting labels gets played out in a practice situation through looking at a case study of  youth with disabilities receiving services from a foster care transition program.

In this article, we propose an alternative stance to the ways in which disability is theoretically and practically approached within the field of social work. We begin with a critical analysis of how contemporary views of disability and response praxis came to be. Building on history and current scholarship from humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, we then advance a progressive theoretical framework, explanatory legitimacy theory (DePoy & Gilson, 2004, 2007). Explanatory legitimacy theory locates disability within the broad context of human diversity, uncouples diversity and thus disability from the bodies and backgrounds mentality of current diversity thinking, and illuminates an alternative value and philosophical frame to inform and guide social workers concerned with furthering the profession’s mission of social and distributive justice for all people.

Book Review: Critical Multicultural Social Work

Reviewed by Peggy Pittman-Munke, PhD, MSW

Book Review: Shock Therapy: A History of Electroconvulsive Treatment in Mental Health

Reviewed by Stephen M. Marson, PhD, ACSW

Book Review: Ethics in Electroconvulsive Therapy

Reviewed by Stephen M. Marson, PhD, ACSW

Book Review: Understanding Human Rights: An Exercise Book

Reviewed by Laura Gibson, PhD, MSW, LCSW