The legitimacy of paternalism in health care relationships has been severely criticized by
those in the field of medical ethics. Critics have argued that paternalism has no place in …

In enabling disabled persons to gain increased function and independence, rehabilitation
practitioners try to emphasize the patient's goals by providing the patient with some control …

This paper presents legal and ethical considerations regarding informed consent for the
evaluation and treatment of patients in physical therapy practice. Therapists traditionally …

Four theoretical ethical perspectives on professional-patient relationships—autonomy,
justice, virtue ethics, and the ethic of care—are surveyed, and some of their implications for …

Of the many dif cult issues facing physiotherapists in clinical practice the one most often
identi ed in practitioner surveys and in the physiotherapy literature is that of informed …

The problems presented by the noncompliant patient are not new to health care
professionals, including physical therapists. Although many of the factors that influence the …

Competence, or decision making capacity, refers to a patient's ability to understand a
situation and to make a choice in light of that understanding. It requires the physician to …

As the number of patients with chronic illness or disability grows, rehabilitation professionals
will face increasingly difficult questions. Traditional concepts of medical ethics can help find …

The notion of consent which rose to the forefront in biomedical ethics as an attempt to
safeguard patients' autonomy, is relatively new. The notion itself requires qualification, for it …

With the support of a grant from the Mabel Pew Myrin Trust, The Hastings Center set out in
1985 to rectify that situation. Various friends and colleagues in rehabilitation medicine had …