Ethical Dilemmas

What makes these scenarios hard

Two goods compete, such as confidentiality and protection, honesty and kindness, or the individual and the service. There is rarely an option with no cost, and answers that pretend there is no trade-off usually rank badly.

What a strong answer usually does

• Work out whose interests conflict before you choose.
• Prefer the reversible action over the irreversible one when you are uncertain.
• Consult your supervisor: a decision taken alone is harder to defend.
• Record your reasoning as well as the outcome.
• Capacity is assessed for one decision at a time, “at the material time” in the words of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which covers England and Wales and, for most purposes, people aged 16 and over. An unwise decision does not by itself show that someone lacks capacity.

What the standards say

• BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct: Respect, Competence, Responsibility, Integrity
• HCPC 1.4: valid consent, voluntary and informed
• HCPC 9.1: conduct that justifies public trust
• HCPC 10.1: full, clear and accurate records
• Mental Capacity Act 2005, sections 1 and 2: the presumption of capacity, and capacity for each decision at the time it is made (England and Wales)

Sources: BPS, Code of Ethics and Conduct (2021), checked 10 Oct 2026; HCPC, Standards of conduct, performance and ethics (2024), checked 10 Oct 2026; Mental Capacity Act 2005, checked 10 Oct 2026.