Four Principles of Biomedical Ethics - Paper Example

Various principles are applied in institutions, organizations and many workplaces as the basis for beliefs and guidance for the activities. In modern bioethics, there are four imperative principles namely beneficence, justice, autonomy and nonmaleficence. The four principles are equally important in contemporary bioethics.

Firstly, decision-making in any notion of autonomy presumes that the rational agents who will be involved in assessing voluntary-decision and informed choices (Lawrence, 2007). When it comes to the healthcare decisions, respect that is given towards the autonomy of a patient, in a conventional parlance, implies that the capacity of the patient to act independently, with understanding and without influences that will mitigate against a free act-voluntary.

Nonmaleficence principle requires that human beings do not create an injury or harm to the patient intentionally through acts of omission or commission. If one is founding imposing unreasonable or a careless risk of damage to the other person is referred as negligent (Lawrence, 2007). The Ethics of the Medical and the Law and the laws of the community is supported where a proper standard of care is administered to avoid or minimize the risks of harm.

The healthcare provision under beneficence principle illustrates an obligation of benefits to the patient, as well as to oversees that steps that are positive that will prevent and remove hazards from the patient. The duties as viewed as self-evident and rational and they are widely in the acceptance of the proper goals of medicine. The principle implies that the supplicant or the suffering patient can enter into a relationship with the person whom the community is licensed as competent providers of medical care.

The principle of justice emphasizes the distribution of limited healthcare resources as well as the respect for patients autonomy and rights. It also provides that the people who have equitability are qualified for the equality concerning treatment. However, the application is out of the Medicare borne, which its entitlement is available to all the persons who are over the age of sixty-five years. In the Christian context, this principle resonates will with the doctrines and ethics to enhance fairness as this is what the Bible also recommends.

Summarily, the four principles operate currently under healthcare ethics, and it has become a conventional morality to the peoples society in outlining medical ethics. I believe that all these principles are all critical and need not be ranked to justify which one comes first. Their monumental guidelines should be applied holistically to facilitate better healthcare.

References

Lawrence, D. (2007). The Four Principles of Biomedical Ethics: A Foundation for Current Bioethical Debate. Journal of Chiropractic Humanities, 14, 34-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1556-3499(13)60161-8