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Principles of Biomedical Ethics, Tom Beauchamp and James F. Childress (1979) |
Four Key Ethical Principles
- Nonmaleficence:
- The obligation to avoid the causation of harm
- Requires only the omission of harm-causing activities
- means do not intentionally inflict harm neither physical nor emotional
- Beneficence
- The obligation to provide benefits and to balance conflicting needs
- Requires positive steps to help others.
- benefits against risks
- refers to the promotion of well-being of others and oneself using morally permissible means.
- Respect for autonomy
- The obligation to respect the decision-making capacities of autonomous activities
- rooted in the liberal western tradition of the importance of individual freedom
- is respect for the ability of competent patients to hold views, make choices, and take action based on their own personal values and beliefs.
- Justice:
- Obligation of fairness in the distribution of benefits and risks
- The requirement of justice refers to distribution of benefits, resources, and burdens fairly.
- Obligation of fairness in the distribution of benefits and risks
The above four principles are always binding, according to Beauchamp
and Childress unless they conflict with other moral principles. there
should be no morally preferable alternative action. HEALTH
CARE ETHICS AND THE ROLE OF ETHICS COMMITTEE IN HEALTH ... (MICROSOFT
POWERPOINT) 
Background Information
The law: Seeks to educate and regulate
with basic minimum requirements.
Sanctions are imposed when the law is not followed
Ethics: Goes one step further. it prescribes desirable conduct, virtues ideals and ideas. Ethical sanctions (unlike the law) are non-coercive. Their force comes from within, from reason.
Discusses adequate reason as justifying action. For example: a physician has promised to take her son to the library, yet there is a life and death situation at the hospital: "A life hangs in the balance, and she alone has the knowledge to deal adequately with the full array of circumstances. Her action of canceling her evening with her son, painful and distressing as it is, can be justified by this good and sufficient reason for doing what she does." (Beauchamp and Childress, 33-34)