Bioethics and speech-language therapy in palliative care: an integrative review

Abstract

Speech-language therapists are part of the multidisciplinary palliative and end-of-life care team, playing
a fundamental role in swallowing and communication demands. When dealing with the well-being and
quality of life of patients with serious and incurable diseases, these professionals may face dilemmas
and conflicting issues, given that the techniques suggested and the choices of the patient and their
family may be divergent. The objective of this study is to identify, from the literature, whether speechlanguage
therapists who work in this area consider bioethical principles in their treatment decisions.
The databases used were SciELO, PubMed, and the Virtual Health Library. It was found that speechlanguage
therapists consider and use bioethical principles in their professional practice in palliative
and end-of-life care. The number of articles found on the speech-language therapists’ work in this
area is small, indicating the need for further studies on the subject.