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Ethical Principles

Ethics and ethical principles provide guidelines for moral behavior. This includes concepts like autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, veracity, confidentiality, and justice. Autonomy means respecting a patient's medical decisions. Beneficence involves acting to help others. Non-maleficence means avoiding harm. Veracity requires truth-telling. Confidentiality keeps private information private. Justice promotes fair treatment and resource distribution.

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Raees Shahid Basharat
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53 views

Ethical Principles

Ethics and ethical principles provide guidelines for moral behavior. This includes concepts like autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, veracity, confidentiality, and justice. Autonomy means respecting a patient's medical decisions. Beneficence involves acting to help others. Non-maleficence means avoiding harm. Veracity requires truth-telling. Confidentiality keeps private information private. Justice promotes fair treatment and resource distribution.

Uploaded by

Raees Shahid Basharat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ethics &

Ethical Principles

Adil Lughmani
Ethics
• The basic concepts and fundamental principles of
decent human conduct. It includes study of
universal values such as the essential equality of
life, obedience to
the law of land, concern for health and safety an
d, increasingly, also for the natural environment.
• Moral principles that govern a person's or
group's behavior.
• The moral correctness of specified conduct.
Bioethics
• A field of study concerned with the ethics and phi
losophical
implications of certain biological and medical pro
cedures, technologies,
and treatments, as organ transplants, genetic
engineering, and care of the terminally ill.
• The study of ethical problems arising from
biological research and its applications in such fie
lds as organ transplantation, genetic
engineering, or artificial insemination
Medical Ethics
Medical Ethics

• Systematic rules or principles governing right


conduct. Each practitioner, upon entering a
profession, is invested with the responsibility
to adhere to the standards of ethical practice
and conduct set by the profession.
Ethical Principal

• Ethical principles are guidelines based on


morality that determine the lengths or
boundaries a person or profession sets for
itself.
Principles of Autonomy
• People have the right to control what happens
to their bodies.
• This principle simply means that an informed,
competent adult patient can refuse or accept
treatments, drugs, and surgeries according to
their wishes.
• Autonomy means that health care workers
should respect the decisions of patients about
their health care.
Cont...
• This concept applies to any adult person who
is mentally competent.
• The right to autonomy has some limitations
designed to protect the patient (especially if
the patient is a child or a mentally
incompetent adult)
•  In the case of such a patient, a parent or legal
guardian acts as the decision maker
Beneficence
• Beneficence is action that is done for the benefit of
others.
• Beneficent actions can be taken to help prevent or
remove harms or to simply improve the situation of
others
• Taking positive action to help others; desire to do good
Examples
• Resuscitating a drowning victim,
• Encouraging a patient to quit smoking and start an
exercise program,
• Talking to the community about  STD prevention..
Non-maleficence
• Avoidance of harm or hurt; core of medical oath
• Non-maleficence means to “do no harm.”
Physicians, nurses and other paramedical staff
must refrain from providing ineffective
treatments to the patients. 
• Requirement that health care providers “do no
harm” to their client’s – intentionally or
unintentionally
• avoidance of harm or hurt; core of medical oath
• Example
– Stopping a medication that is shown to be harmful,
refusing to provide a treatment that has not been
shown to be effective
Veracity
• Requires the health care provider to tell the
truth & not intentionally deceive or mislead
clients
• In the health care context, there are broad
applications of this principle.
• Patients and families rely upon physicians and
other caregivers for the information they need
to make informed choices about their care
Confidentiality

•  Confidentiality means that a physician and


other paramedical staff keeps information
that a patient reveals in the context of a
doctor-patient relationship to himself/herself.
Cont..

• There are instances when information obtained


in clinical or counseling relationships should be
shared with others.
• In doing so, the guidelines stress that such
sharing should occur "only with persons clearly
concerned with the case"
Justice/Equity
• Justice is a complex ethical principle, with
meanings that range from the fair treatment
of individuals to the equitable allocation of
healthcare resources.
• This principle refers to an equal and fair
distribution of resources.
• Justice is a concept about treating people
fairly.

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