ABSTRACT
A Abortion Potts et al. define abortion as 'the loss of a pregnancy before the fetus or fetuses are potentially capable of life independent of the mother'. This general definition covers spontaneous abortion or miscarriage and induced abortion, but distinguishes both from premature birth, live or still. The subject of abortion is significant for current social policy and for social work for a number of different reasons. Legislation to legalise the medical termination of pregnancy has been promoted and criticised by the continuing action of different pressure groups (e.g. the Abortion Law Reform Society, founded in 1936, and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 1967); the deep convictions in favour of abortion (and its extension to an on-demand service) or profoundly against the use made of present services have resulted in attempts to change the law in a less restricted or a more restricted direction; in addition, these convictions have led to the establishment of new voluntary services often of an 'advisory' or 'counselling' nature. The conditions the 1967 Act was intended to rectify (e.g. back-street abortion, illegitimate and unwanted births) and the Act itself raise questions of a more moral and political nature: the justification of different grounds for termination; the conscientious objection of doctors and nurses; the rights of women to 'their own bodies'; abortion as part of explicit state policy in relation to family planning; the role of the state in preventing 'greater evil', and so on. DHSS, (Lane) Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act (1974)
Report, Cmnd 5579, HMSO. Feinberg, J. (ed.) (1973) The Problem of Abortion, Belmont. Potts, M., Digory, P. and Peel, J. (1977) Abortion, Cambridge
University Press. 1
ACCEPTANCE
Acceptance Acceptance is usually taken in a social welfare context to refer to one of the principles of social work or to a desirable attitude towards the recipients of any social service on the part of those who administer it. It is best approached in terms of the implicit or explicit purposiveness of human behaviour: acceptance in the case of a social work client refers to active search for the point any behaviour has for the client and recognition of this as legitimate for him. 'Acceptance' illustrates the ambiguity of 'principle' in social work: it is justified as part of respect for persons or as a statement of what is in fact required for any effective social work. Unlike the 'non-judgmental attitude' with which it also overlaps, 'acceptance' does not seem to suggest one refrains from anything. Moreover, 'acceptance' can be given a weak, dispassionate meaning, as in social work records when 'the social worker accepted this' means only that he made no comment, or a stronger meaning in which the social worker actively recognises elements in a situation as real. This more positive sense is sometimes exaggerated into descriptions of acceptance as a kind of love, but such rarefied 'hugging at a distance' is best left unpursued. Biestek notes that 'acceptance' is one of the vaguest in social work language, but argues for a clear distinction between acceptance and approval. Biestek, F.P. (1961) The Casework Relationship, Allen & Unwin, pp.
