Biomedical Ethics: Beauchamp And Childress

Beauchamp and Childress believed that moral norms are central to biomedical ethics derived from common morality. To prove that moral norms are central to biomedical ethics derived from common morality, Beauchamp and Childress developed a four-principle approach known as Principlism. Principlism is a theory that resolves ethical issues in terms of four principles: respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. For instance, respect for autonomy holds that an individual has the right to make his or her own choice. Non-maleficence refers to refraining from causing harm to another individual, or what would be against the patient’s interest. Beneficence asserts the duty to help other people and to keep their best interest in mind.

In the first part of the chapter, Beauchamp and Childress discussed normative ethics, non-normative ethics, and common morality. For Beauchamp and Childress, normative and non-normative ethics are different approaches for understanding and examining the moral life. They described common morality as a set of universal norms, which are widely shared by communities or groups like, physicians, nurses, and public health officials committed to morality. For example, norms that are found in common morality include: preventing evil or harm from occurring, not causing pain or suffering to others, and obeying

For instance, in a health care setting, the respect for autonomy translates to informed consent. Informed consent requires that a physician respect a patients right to make decisions regarding his or her own medical care. Therefore, providing informed consent and following the patient’s wishes demonstrates a physicians respect for autonomy. Furthermore, non-maleficence requires that physicians refrain from providing ineffective treatments or acting with ill will toward their patients. In other words, stopping a medication that is shown to be harmful and deciding whether the potential benefits outweigh the potential harm is something I would want in a health care provider deciding for myself or my family. Moreover, beneficence requires that physicians act in the best interest of their patients because of their vulnerability to illness and lack of medical expertise. Therefore, patients need to rely on physicians to offer sound advice and to weigh and balance the possible benefits against the possible risks of action. Lastly, justice deals with issues such as treating patients equally and distributing medical goods and services fairly. For example, two patients with the same medical needs ought to be treated similarly regardless of their race, gender, or social status. In sum, the goal of medicine is to promote the welfare of patients, and using the four principles allows doctors and