Avery Cerebral Palsy - Legal and Ethical Issues

Legal and Ethical Issues of Cerebral Palsy

February 12th, 2024 by Fischer Avery 

Introduction

There are legal and ethical concerns that must be considered when it comes to the care and treatment of individuals with any sort of disability, and depending upon the differences in the type of disability being presented, there may be differences in the considerations that need to be made. Cerebral palsy is one disability that requires specific legal and ethical considerations that may not be considered in the treatment of other disabilities, which will be discussed here. 

Legal and Ethical Concern

One legal consideration that must be made for individuals with cerebral palsy is equal mobility access to resources and services. A failure to provide equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities related to mobility would be discriminatory, as it would involve ignoring the needs of a specific population and refusing to provide services for those people based on their condition. An ethical concern related to individuals with cerebral palsy would be consent. Because cerebral palsy is strongly related to higher rates of intellectual disability, some individuals with cerebral palsy may not have the ability to provide consent for themselves to receive treatment for their condition. It may be the caregiver or guardian's responsibility to provide consent for the disabled individual. However, this raises concerns over whether or not if consent should be able to be provided for these individuals because they may not want to participate in treatment but don't have the ability to voice against it (Dan, 2021).

Is Meeting the Letter of the Law Sufficient?

The Letter of the Law refers to the exact wording of a law. Simply just meeting the Letter of the Law is not sufficient because of the fact that many laws are written with wording that is meant to be generalized and interpreted in a sense. Following only the Letter of the Law is not sufficient because of the fact that it is impossible to write a law for every single given scenario. Therefore, the Letter of the Law for one particular law may apply to multiple types of scenarios. For example, the law that requires that people do not commit murder unless in self defense. However, the truth is that this law must be somewhat interpreted and generalized, because the nature of the self defense may differ greatly based on each scenario (Garcia et al., 2014). 

Discuss and Illustrate the Spirit of the Law

The Spirit of Law refers to the actual intention behind a law. It is entirely possible for an individual to follow the Letter of the Law while failing to follow the Spirit of the Law. This is because a law may have a limited range of words that can encompass every scenario. In the example above, the hunter is in fact respecting the Letter of the Law by refraining from fishing in the traditional sense within the area. He isn't casting lines and catching fish, but the hunter is failing to respect the Spirit of the Law because he is still killing the fish. The Spirit of the Law in this case would be protecting the lives of the fish (Garcia et al., 2014). 

Potential Issues Impact on the Individual

An inability for individuals with cerebral palsy to access goods and services can cause significant levels of stress due to feelings of injustice, unfairness, and lack of recognition. Without problems like this being solved in society, the population of individuals with cerebral palsy may feel as though their issues are being ignored and that nobody cares about them, resulting in poor mental health outcomes. Additionally, individuals with cerebral palsy who are unable to give their own consent may experience harm from being involved in treatment or services that they do not want to be involved in but cannot voice against it (Marini, Stebnicki, 2018).

Impact on Family/Friend, Environment, and Society

The friends and family related to an individual with cerebral palsy may experience stress due to the fact that a person that they care about cannot access the same services that they do. This may influence feelings of outrage, and can encourage those around the disabled individual to fight and advocate for equal opportunities. Family and friends may also be required to provide consent when appropriate for the disabled individual. The environments that those with cerebral palsy are involved in may require serious adaptation in order to allow for individuals with cerebral palsy to maneuver their wheelchairs or tools used to assist with walking so that they have access to all of the materials and goods that they need. Lastly, society needs to encourage policies that require all businesses to make services accessible to individuals with mobility issues like those with cerebral palsy, so that accessibility can be improved on a large scale (Marini, Stebnicki, 2018).

References

Above the Law. (n.d.). Man looking at signs reading ethical and legal. [Illustration]. https://abovethelaw.com/2015/12/5-ethical-issues-with-litigation-finance/

Dan, B. (2021). New Ethical Issues in Cerebral Palsy. Frontiers in neurology, 12, 650653. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.650653

Garcia, S. M., Chen, P., & Gordon M. T. (2014). The letter versus the spirit of the law: A lay perspective on culpability. Judgment and Decision Making; 9(5):479-490. doi:10.1017/S1930297500006835

Jung, N. (n.d.). I'm not fishing, I'm hunting. [Illustration]. https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoon?searchID=CS422334 

Marini, I., & Stebnicki, M. A. (2018). The psychological and social impact of illness and disability, (7th ed.). Springer Publishing. ISBN: 9780826161611 (Paperback)