Moral agency as enacted justice: a clinical and ethical decision-making framework for responding to health inequities and social injustice

dc.contributor.authorEdwards, I.
dc.contributor.authorDelaney, C.M.
dc.contributor.authorTownsend, A.F.
dc.contributor.authorSwisher, L.L.
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractThis is the second of 2 companion articles in this issue. The first article explored the clinical and ethical implications of new emphases in physical therapy codes of conduct reflecting the growing evidence regarding the importance of social determinants of health, epidemiological trends for health service delivery, and the enhanced participation of physical therapists in shaping health care reform in a number of international contexts. The first article was theoretically oriented and proposed that a re-thinking of ethical frameworks expressed in codes of ethics could both inform and underpin practical strategies for working in primary health care. A review of the ethical principle of "justice", which, arguably, remains the least consensually understood and developed principle in the ethics literature of physical therapy, was provided, and a more recent perspective-the capability approach to justice-was discussed. The current article proposes a clinical and ethical decision-making framework, the ethical reasoning bridge (ER bridge), which can be used to assist physical therapy practitioners to: (1) understand and implement the capability approach to justice at a clinical level; (2) reflect on and evaluate both the fairness and influence of beliefs, perspectives, and context affecting health and disability through a process of "wide reflective equilibrium" and assist patients to do this as well; and (3) nurture the development of moral agency, in partnership with patients, through a transformative learning process manifest in a mutual "crossing" and "re-crossing" of the ER bridge. It is proposed that the development and exercise of moral agency represent an enacted justice that is the result of a shared reasoning and learning experience on the part of both therapists and patients.
dc.identifier.citationPhysical Therapy, 2011; 91(11):1653-1663
dc.identifier.doi10.2522/ptj.20100351.20
dc.identifier.issn0031-9023
dc.identifier.issn1538-6724
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1959.8/123552
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherAmerican Physical Therapy Association
dc.rightsCopyright 2011 American Physical Therapy Association
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20100351.20
dc.subjectethics
dc.subjectdecision making
dc.subjectmoral
dc.subjectphysical therapy
dc.titleMoral agency as enacted justice: a clinical and ethical decision-making framework for responding to health inequities and social injustice
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished
ror.mmsid9915909124601831

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