INTRODUCTION: Although still incipient rapprochement between Physical Therapy and Bioethics in Brazil has been growing concern about its development due to the variety of ethical conflicts that may involve physiotherapists. This paper was a study on the themes and the theoretical foundation of the articles indexed wishing to discuss the interface between Physical Therapy and Bioethics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted by content analysis method Bardin in all papers published in refereed journals, found in the sources BIREME and SciELO between 2000 and 2011 using the keywords: physiotherapy and bioethics and its derivatives. RESULTS: We confirmed the primary level of development of bioethical reflection in physical therapy, showing conceptual deficiencies, distance of more modern theories and models developed in Brazil and lack of consideration of sociocultural and economic factors as influencing the generation of conflict. FINAL THOUGHTS: It was pointed out the need to develop training projects in bioethics for teachers and researchers in the field of physical therapy in order to develop content in undergraduate programs and graduate.
Bioethics; Principle-based ethics; Physical therapy; Ethics theory; Education
