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Abstract
Erica Bates has recently raised the question of ethics with respect to the use of control group research into the effects of social work therapeutic intervention.1 She briefly outlined an apparent polarization of attitudes held about this issue by social workers. On the one hand, there are the social workers who oppose the use of control groups in such research on the grounds that it is unethical to identify and isolate people with a problem by placing them in a control group and thus deliberately denying them treatment—while at the same time actively treating a similar group with comparable problems in an experimental group. On the other hand, there are the social workers who believe that there is no ethical problem in using this method. Bates outlines their stance when she says: