The Four Principles Approach To Health Care Ethics

The reading on, “The ‘Four Principles’ Approach to Health Care Ethics” outlines the four principles of ethics. The reading first discusses the origins of principles and healthcare ethics. In the past, there were no rules on how physicians could treat their patient. In Europe and Asia they mainly focused on preventing disease and harm, while maximizing health benefits. During the 1970s and 1980s, principles for bioethics were formed. These principles were easy to understand and use for people with all different types of professional background. Beauchamp and Childress published a book called, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, which reviews the set of basic rules for bioethics. The rules are respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. Respect for autonomy means to recognize that the people have rights and choices.

This states that a physician can not kill, cause pain, disable, deprive of pleasure, cheat, or break promises. Problems with nonmaleficence arise when doctors are treating mentally ill patients and have to be a little aggressive to treat the patient. The third principle is beneficence. This means that the doctor must be kind, and do what is best for the patient. In this principle, doctors want to maximize benefits and minimize harm. This principle can be applied anywhere, for example, the benefit could be for society instead of the patient. Sometime beneficence and nonmaleficence run into each other; for example, drawing blood draw is harmful, but it’s helping someone else. The last principle is justice. Justice means fair treatment, which states that if two people have the same medical issue, then they should be treated the same way. These four principles are a basic overview of what should be followed. Overtime these principles have changed a little, and there are exceptions to these rules depending on the situation.. The four principles is just a starting point, there are specifications and norms that are also put into