ABSTRACT
Across the globe, the profession of social work is centrally committed to the protection of human life and dignity (International Federation of Social Work, 2014). Indeed, it is from this ethical primacy that all other social work ethics and values originate. For if the human being is not of distinctly individual inherent worth, and the dignity of that human being can be commoditized, exploited, and extinguished without protective response from social workers, then social work has no purpose. The profession, while widely agreeing on an ethos of human rights, does not have universal agreement on when life begins and, thus, when the social work obligation to protect that life arises. The medical field has established that, at the point of conception, a unique individual (termed initially a zygote, then an embryo, then a fetus) is formed, and that it is by genetic and biological definition a fully functioning organism – a human being (Condic, 2008). From the moment the zygote is formed, the human being is in a constant state of generation and growth that continues across the lifespan until death (DeMarco, 2000). This newly formed human being is unrepeatable, unique in all aspects, and identifiably separate from its mother in its genetic makeup (Miklavcic & Flaman, 2017). Because the fetus is a human being, it has inherent human rights, codified in various international declarations, treaties, and professional codes. Therefore, social workers are professionally bound and obligated to act on behalf of the human being from point of conception, enlisting social work knowledge, skills, and experience in protecting the life of the unborn human being from conception forward and facilitating its growth in dignity toward full human potential. Further, as in all social work practice, it is not enough to merely serve the unborn human being; the professional social worker must advocate for the end of the legality and practice of abortion as an atrocity and affront to the life and dignity of all human beings. This chapter discusses the social work ethos of human rights, examines violations of human rights presented by policies and practices of abortion, and details a model of prolife social work.
