INSTRUCTIONS NOT FOLLOWED: Here is an example of a vignette.
Making use of an ethical decision-making model may be helpful as you analyze this vignette.
Although the following vignette may not exactly fit your current or future work world it does provide much for discussion. Answer the questions listed below based on this vignette.
Alex is a Human Services worker in Massachusetts. He works in a state mental hospital, working solely with patients who have been deemed not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). Alex is informed by admissions that he will be receiving another NGRI patient; a 27-year-old Caucasian female named Zoe Taylor, who has AIDs but has not been able to receive any medical services. He immediately recognizes the name as an old girlfriend of two years, with whom he had a sexual relationship that ended four years ago.
Zoe has murdered her husband by shooting him point blank in the chest with a shotgun in front of her son. She shot him because he has been cheating on her with multiple partners. Because Alex was once involved with Zoe and still has unresolved feelings for her, he immediately sets up a transfer for Zoe to be held at the local county jail. Alex never informed his supervisor of his prior relationship with Zoe. Alex goes to see Zoe in the prison three days per week to discuss her case and to have sex. Alex too has AIDS which no one knows about.
A prison guard walks in on Alex and Zoe in the act of intercourse and reports the behavior to Alex’s supervisor at the hospital. Alex’s supervisor is the clinical director of the hospital and Alex’s best friend. He feels Alex made an error in judgment that can be dealt with in supervision, thus no report of sexually inappropriate behavior on the part of Alex was ever reported.