So morals, an interesting topic no doubt, but what are they? Morals are referred to as the principals that a person lives by and uses to distinguish right from wrong in terms of behavior during daily life. As opposed to ethics which are more of a socially accepted set of rules to guide people’s behavior, such as a constitution or a set of laws. Morality guides an individual based on what they believe to be significant in determining what is as accepted or uncouth behavior.
Morals are developed by each individual person stemming from a number of contributing and altering factors such as childhood upbringing, poverty and wealth, and religious beliefs. But when it comes to treating a patient in a medical facility, morality tends to change the way some people treat their patients as “they’ believe the patient does not deserve to be treated equally with regards to medical assistance due to their uncouth or unmoral behavior in the eyes of the practitioner. People tend to argue this bias way of attending to a patient, and thus the development of constitutions in health that give both patients and practitioners basic rights, and the development of an set of ethical constructs by the HPCSA in South Africa that are o be adhered to by all medical practitioners. This gives all healthcare practitioners the same base line of morality in which to treat their patients, even when they believe treatment should be given otherwise or not at all. On completion of one’s medical degree, the Hippocratic Oath is taken and suggests that anyone in need of medical assistance should be attended too. If personal views and morals come between the patient and the practitioner in a problematic manner, perhaps a career in the healthcare sector may have been a mistake, especially in South Africa with our high level of violent criminals, behaving like a babbling bumbling band of baboons or hooligans on heroin.
Intellect is another profound catalyst in the development of one’s moral beliefs and thus possibly posing to be potentially problematic. Here is some food for thought coming from a scientific study. A large portion of the world follow some sort of religious belief which undoubtedly has an effect on moral development, be it positive or negative. If so, consider the fact that atheists score higher on IQ tests than religious people (Barber, 2010) http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201005/the-real-reason-atheists-have-higher-iqs . Additionally, taking into consideration that IQ or Intelligence Quotient supposedly has nothing to do with education and is a test of natural intelligence, how many irrational and ignorant people must there be around us at this very moment. Having said this, now think again at how this may affect the treatment of a patient that has just committed a crime, been injured, and is in need of assistance by a closed minded morally ignorant practitioner.
Here’s a picture of some old hand grenades, enjoy them
Stay classy
Professional Ethics for Physiotherapy 