HLTH 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Primum Non Nocere, Margaret Harris, Kantianism
7 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Health 200
T/Th 2:30pm-3:45pm
Lisa DuPree, Jamie Hamblin, Dr. Margaret Harris
Tuesday, 2/13/18
1
Bioethis
• There are 6 key principles: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, double-
effect, totality
• Key theories: Utilitarianism and Kantianism
• Encourages you to weight the consequences and consider your intent before acting
Principles
• Autonomy
o Tends to take priority in all cases
o It is the freedom from control or influence
o The capacity we have for self-determination as rational beings (the ability to
make our own choices)
o “tarted ith the patiets’ rights oeet i the 96s: people thought
patients should be informed and involved in their own healthcare decisions
o Examples of autonomy in action: informed consent, right to refuse treatment,
advanced directives
• Beneficence
o Act of doing good for someone else
o Healthcare practitioners will make reasonable sacrifices for patients
o Examples of beneficence in action: pain relief, due-care standards, on-call hours
• Non-maleficence
o o-har
o acting with no intention of doing harm to patients (came from the values of
Hippocrates, Greek physician)
o Examples: IRBs, abortion, assisted suicide
• Justice
o The principle that similar cases should be treated in similar ways
o Any exceptions must be justified
o Enforces the idea of equality (non-discriminatory)
o Distribution: social benefits and burdens, which includes medical resources,
must be distributed fairly
• Double-Effect
o An action should be performed only if the intention is to bring about the good
effect and the bad effect will be an unintended or indirect consequence
o Conditions:
▪ The action must be good or indifferent
▪ The bad must not be the means by which the good is achieved
▪ The motive for the action must be to achieve food only
• Totality
o We should udergo o proedure that hars the ody’s totality uless the
procedure is medically necessary to preserve life
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