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Four principles of medical ethics

concept · in 5 sources (2017–2018)

Autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice, proposed by Beauchamp and Childress as the structure for medical ethics.

Sources by year: 2017: 2 · 2018: 3

Also known as: four principles

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Consequentialism (2) · Charlotte (3) · Medical ethics (3) · NHS (3) · Medicine interview (6) · Molly Hunt (3) · Euthanasia (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2018

  • 2018-01-10 · Euthanasia - Medical Ethics and Law at the end of life — Ali applies the four principles to the Lillian Boyes case: non-maleficence and beneficence conflict, since ending a life can be argued to relieve suffering or to be the very definition of harm. — 00:03:02
    • Ali says autonomy favours helping Lillian Boyes end her life, as she and her family want it, while justice asks whether it is fair to take another human life whatever the intention. — 00:03:40
    • Ali says applicants asked about euthanasia should structure their answer with the four principles, then add the legal status of euthanasia and perhaps the Dr Cox case, which would help them stand out. — 00:15:27
  • 2018-01-17 · Legalising Assisted Suicide? - Medical Ethics and Law — Molly Hunt: Arguing for legalisation, Molly says that under the principle of beneficence some would argue a doctor causes more harm by letting a suffering patient live longer. — 00:19:43
    • Molly Hunt: Molly argues that not allowing someone to commit suicide infringes their autonomy, one of the pillars of medical practice. — 00:20:11
  • 2018-01-27 · Charlie Gard - Medical Ethics and Law — Ali says the Charlie Gard case raised five main ethical issues, beginning with autonomy, the balance of beneficence and non-maleficence, and justice or allocation of resources. — 00:08:56
    • Abi 5A9Ae87434: Abi says that in the Charlie Gard case autonomy means mostly the parents' right to decide, since a young, disabled baby is given little personal autonomy. — 00:09:26
    • Ali says the four principles of medical ethics, autonomy among them, are the structure he always suggests for answering medical ethics questions. — 00:10:41
    • Abi 5A9Ae87434: Abi says almost any treatment carries harm, and flying a very sick baby to the US for experimental treatment carried real risk, so it was not simply Charlie Gard's one shot. — 00:14:59

2017

  • 2017-12-14 · How to answer Medical Ethics interview questions — recommendation: Ali says every medicine applicant with an interview will recite the four principles of medical ethics, so to stand out you should give more than just the four principles. — 00:00:00
    • Ali says the four principles of medical ethics are the structure he, his friends and everyone else would recommend for answering a medical ethics scenario. — 00:00:29
    • a guest: The four principles of medical ethics are beneficence (helping patients), non-maleficence (doing no harm), justice (allocating treatments fairly) and autonomy (patients make their own decisions), a good start to any ethical scenario. — 00:03:24
    • Ali says everyone knows the four principles and that they must apply them, so what distinguishes candidates is what they say while applying them and showing personality: talk engagingly and smile occasionally. — 00:04:23
    • Charlotte would approach the bariatric-surgery case by taking each of the four principles in turn and addressing it with the case at hand. — 00:05:04
    • Ali says opportunity cost can always be mentioned under justice: even when asked to choose between two transplant patients, consider what the money could do if neither got it. — 00:09:05
    • Ali says understanding where the four principles come from is useful, giving more understanding of where they fit in the wider medical ethics debate. — 00:15:51
    • Ali says the four principles of medical ethics have been criticised but are still a pretty good method for answering ethical scenarios. — 00:17:57
    • Ali says Beauchamp and Childress wrote a treatise on medical ethics proposing the four principles as a distillation of the other schools of thought. — 00:17:57
    • Ali says the bare minimum is applying the four principles of medical ethics; knowing the schools of thought is not required but improves your answers. — 00:19:41
    • a guest: In practice it is more useful medically to think about how Beauchamp and Childress distilled the schools of thought into the four principles and how to apply them. — 00:23:28
  • 2017-12-21 · Consent, Capacity and Jehovah's Witnesses - Medical Ethics & Law for interviews — recommendation: Ali says applicants can probably make up the four principles (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice) on the spot, so the video covers the specifics of capacity and consent instead. — 00:03:14