Ethics in Practice: Physical Therapy as a Moral Community

Building moral communities in the profession takes collaboration, leadership, and persistence.

Column

Date: Saturday, February 1, 2025

Author: Rebecca Ditwiler, PT, DPT, PhD, Debra Gorman-Badar PT, PhD, Nicholas Weber PT, DPT, and Gail Jensen PT, PhD, FAPTA

Ethicists Regina Doherty, OT, OTD, and Ruth Purtilo, PT, PhD, FAPTA, assert that health care professions are moral communities because they are a subgroup of society with a "professional morality [that] embraces moral values, duty, and character traits that do not apply equally or at all to others in society (Doherty, 2016)." Similarly, ethicist Laura Lee "Dolly" Swisher, PT, PhD, FAPTA, points out that there are no easy answers for the "wicked" ethical problems facing our profession and joins Purtilo in advocating for our professional moral community to be proactive in partnering with society (Swisher, 2022).

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