Blog Post 10: Specific Ethical Question

Ask/address an ethical question in your field of interest.

Here is an ethical question related to the physical therapy field.
Question- Should a physical therapist continue treatment on a terminally ill patient?


Develop/address arguments for each side of the issue, then defend your position on the issue.

Argument against treating patient

Yes they should or no they should not. Lets first start out with reasons why a physical therapist should not continue treatment on a terminally ill patient. The most obvious one is that a patient with a terminal illness has a disease that cannot be cured and will likely end up dying as a result. Physical therapists can only see a limited number of patients in a day because that is all they have time for. Sometimes when people call in and want to schedule an appointment to see a physical therapists they have to wait for weeks in order to see one because of so many bookings. The problem that physical therapists face is should they treat someone that is terminally ill knowing very well that there is other people that need to see a physical therapist that have a better chance with their treatment working on them. Even if the physical therapists treatment works on the terminally ill patient the chances of that patient dying in the next couple of months or sometimes years are very good. Cost is another overriding factor that one needs to take into consideration when analyzing this circumstance. Going to see a physical therapists is not exactly cheap. One should not spend that much money trying to get better by a physical therapist if no signs of improving this patients condition can be seen.

Argument for treating patient

On the other hand they are still patients in need of care. There is no rule or law that says terminally ill patients should not be provided any care by a physical therapists. Every patient that a physical therapist sees has a right to receive care by the therapists. After all they are paying for the same medical treatment as a person that does not have a terminal illness. They should be treated with the same type of care that everyone else gets. A physical therapists should do everything within their powers to rehabilitate every patient that they see. After all just because the doctors diagnosed the patient with a terminal illness does not mean that it is terminal for sure. Doctors are human too and they can give patients a misdiagnosis. Most cancers are considered terminal. Should physical therapists not treat cancer patients? There are many cases where cancer patients go through treatment and put the cancer into remission. The patient could live for another ten or more years with the cancer in remission. Just because a patient has a terminal disease does not mean that they should not get equal treatment.

My personal opinion

I believe that every patient that enters a physical therapy facility should be given a chance to receive treatment from a physical therapists. They are the ones that are paying for the service and should not be turned down just because of a condition that they have. Sometimes even if physical therapy does not seem to be helping the patient physically maybe it is helping them in other ways. Maybe the treatment is affecting the way the patients view life. Treatment provided my physical therapists can give patients hope and the power of hope is greater than some people give it credit. Maybe it gives the patient something to hang on to. Whatever the case if the patient wants treatment then the patient should receive just that.

References

http://physther.net/content/60/10/1264.full.pdf
http://helpguide.org/elder/hospice_care.htm
http://clearharmony.net/articles/200504/26148.html

this activity must include references

each student will then review this beginning on Nov 2.

Evaluation Criteria:

1-4 are evaluated by assigning a strong(S), medium(M) or weak(W)

1. Described field of interest and described question posed.
2. Both sides of argument were presented.
3. Appropriate references were included
4. Defended position is described clearly

5. provide one useful comment