This study was aimed to explore deeply the ethical dilemmas of staffs in a residential facility for people
with intellectual dilemmas. The methodology of qualitative case study was used to closely examine an
incident of human rights infringement which occurred in a residential facility for people with intellectual
disabilities. By this method, the contexts surrounding the occurrence of the incident and the afterward
process of the case settlement were investigated. In regards to people with intellectual disabilities, the
dilemma about the competency and credibility of handicapped person’s testimony and the limits of
responsibility for his/her own behavior was extracted. In regards to staff, the dilemma about allowable
limits of self-defense, absence of standard protocol for handling client’s use of violence, and conflicts
surrounding whistle blowing was extracted. In regards to the institution, the dilemma about the confused
priority of client’s versus staff’s rights, individual caring versus communal living, extension of
self-determination versus compliance with community value was extracted. This study is an explorative
study of a single case of human-rights infringement. Despite this limitation, it identified various dilemmas
which could occur in the actual field by experience of the staff in a residential facility for people with
disabilities and provided foundational data needed for further discussions in the field and in study.