Autonomy: Respecting the patient’s right to make their own healthcare decisions. This includes obtaining informed consent before any treatment, allowing patients to refuse treatment, and respecting their choices, even if they differ from the healthcare provider’s recommendations.
Beneficence: Acting in the best interest of the patient. Healthcare providers have a duty to promote the well-being of patients, provide appropriate treatments, and prevent harm whenever possible.
Non-Maleficence: The obligation to “do no harm.” This principle emphasizes avoiding treatments or interventions that could cause unnecessary harm or suffering to the patient.
Justice: Ensuring fairness in the distribution of healthcare resources and treatment. This includes providing equal care regardless of a patient’s background, and addressing disparities in healthcare access and outcomes.
2. Informed Consent
Patient Understanding: Patients must be fully informed about the risks, benefits, and alternatives of a proposed treatment or procedure before agreeing to it.
Voluntariness: Consent must be given freely, without coercion or undue influence.
Capacity: Patients must have the mental capacity to understand the information and make decisions about their care. If a patient lacks capacity, a legal guardian or healthcare proxy may make decisions on their behalf.
3. Confidentiality
Patient Privacy: Healthcare providers must protect the privacy of patient information. This includes ensuring that medical records are kept confidential and only shared with those involved in the patient’s care, unless the patient gives explicit permission or there is a legal requirement to disclose information.
Exceptions: Confidentiality may be breached in certain situations, such as when there is a risk of harm to the patient or others (e.g., cases of abuse, suicidal intent, or communicable diseases).
4. End-of-Life Care
Advance Directives: Legal documents like living wills and healthcare proxies allow patients to express their wishes about end-of-life care, such as whether they want life-sustaining treatments.
Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: These practices, where allowed by law, involve ethical considerations about the patient’s right to die with dignity versus the duty to preserve life.
Palliative Care: Focuses on providing comfort and managing symptoms rather than curing the illness, especially for patients with terminal conditions.
5. Resource Allocation
Fair Distribution: Deciding how limited healthcare resources, such as organs for transplant or access to expensive treatments, should be allocated. Ethical questions arise about how to prioritize patients and what criteria should be used.
Rationing: In situations where resources are scarce, decisions may need to be made about who receives treatment. This can involve difficult ethical considerations.
6. Cultural Sensitivity
Respecting Cultural Beliefs: Healthcare providers must consider and respect the cultural, religious, and personal beliefs of patients when providing care, particularly when these beliefs influence medical decisions.
Cultural Competence: Providers should be aware of and sensitive to cultural differences in health practices and communication styles.
7. Research Ethics
Informed Consent in Research: Participants in medical research must be fully informed about the study, including potential risks and benefits, and must consent to participate voluntarily.
Risk-Benefit Analysis: Research studies should be designed to minimize risks to participants and maximize potential benefits.
Equitable Selection of Subjects: Participants should be selected fairly, without exploitation of vulnerable populations, and with consideration for the potential impact on different groups.
8. Professionalism and Integrity
Honesty and Transparency: Healthcare providers are expected to be honest with patients about diagnoses, treatment options, and potential outcomes.
Avoiding Conflicts of Interest: Providers should act in the best interest of the patient, avoiding situations where personal or financial interests could influence medical decisions.
9. Global Medical Ethics
Ethical Considerations in Global Health: In global health initiatives, issues like equitable access to care, respecting local customs, and addressing health disparities are critical ethical concerns.
Human Rights: Healthcare is often viewed as a fundamental human right, and ethical considerations include ensuring that all individuals have access to basic healthcare services.
10. Evolving Ethical Challenges
Technological Advances: New technologies, such as genetic testing, artificial intelligence in healthcare, and telemedicine, raise new ethical questions regarding privacy, consent, and the potential impact on patient care.
Pandemic Ethics: During public health emergencies like pandemics, ethical considerations include balancing individual rights with community protection, vaccine distribution, and managing healthcare resource scarcity.
