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Nursing ethics is a branch of applied ethics that concerns itself with activities in the field of nursing. Nursing ethics shares many principles with medical ethics, such as beneficence, non-maleficence and respect for autonomy. It can be distinguished by its emphasis on relationships, human dignity and collaborative care.
The Belmont Report summarizes ethical principles and guidelines for human subject research. Three core principles are identified: respect for persons, Beneficence, and Justice. The three primary areas of application were stated as informed consent, assessment of risks and benefits, and selection of human subjects in research.
Beneficence is a concept in research ethics that states that researchers should have the welfare of the research participant as a goal of any clinical trial or other research study. The antonym of this term, maleficence , describes a practice that opposes the welfare of any research participant.
So the principle of non-maleficence is not absolute, and balances against the principle of beneficence (doing good), as the effects of the two principles together often give rise to a double effect (further described in next section). Even basic actions like taking a blood sample or an injection of a drug cause harm to the patient's body.
Non-maleficence is often contrasted with its complement, beneficence. Young and Wagner argued that, for healthcare professionals and other professionals subject to a moral code, in general beneficence takes priority over non-maleficence (“first, do good,” not “first, do no harm”) both historically and philosophically. [3]
Case 1: A newborn with probably fatal birth defects that is a ward of the state is in the Neonatal ICU and nurses must decide what level of care represents beneficence, or "doing good." Case 2: The staff in a nursing home must decide between respecting a patient's autonomy and the need to restrain her to prevent injury.
Beneficence is a principle allowing physicians to act responsibly in their practice and in the best interests of their patients, which may involve overlooking autonomy. [55] However, the gap between a patient and a physician has led to problems because in other cases, the patients have complained of not being adequately informed.
One of the first areas addressed by modern bioethicists was human experimentation. According to the Declaration of Helsinki published by the World Medical Association, the essential principles in medical research involving human subjects are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. The autonomy of individuals to make decisions while ...