In other words, a prima facie principle/obligation is that which sometimes is overridden when it conflicts with an equal or a stronger obligation it is always right and binding, all other things being equal. For the moral philosopher, Ross, a prima facie principle is that “principle always to be acted upon unless it conflicts on a particular occasion with an equal or stronger principle”. The second version makes it clear that the principle of beneficence is a prima facie moral obligation. This is to say that utility as a principle of beneficence in biomedical ethics makes it imperative for physicians and other health workers to carefully analyze, evaluate and promote those actions that bring more benefits to others (i.e. This principle, unlike the first, requires weighing and balancing benefits and harms in moral life. The second version is the principle of utility. It also includes the promotion of welfare of others. This principle requires the provision of benefits including the prevention and removal of harm from others (i.e. The first principle is known as the principle of positive beneficence. ![]() This makes it important to distinguish two principles under the general principle of beneficence-the principle of positive beneficence and the principle of utility. However, equally important is the obligation to assess or “weigh and balance the possible goods against the possible harms of an action”. The complexities of beneficence in biomedicineĪs has been seen on the nature of the principle of beneficence explicated above, the obligation to confer benefits and actively prevent and remove harms from patients is important in biomedical ethics. Thus the Hippocratic Oath, by itself, is a “mere” skeleton of the principle of beneficence in so far as it sheds light on concepts that define what it means to be a physician and to “benefit the sick” while avoiding “harm and injustice”’-the moral responsibility of physicians to do away with the sufferings of the sick, and to lessen the violence of their diseases. Yet like its old version, the Oath stresses on the virtues that keep the physician's attention fixed on his obligations to patients and the latter's best interests, rather than the physician's personal interests. However, over the last 20 years, there has been growing dissatisfaction with the individual rights-centered ethical framework. In the modern era, the Hippocratic Oath is traceable to the 18 th century with John Gregory and after World War II, medical ethics started to advocate patient autonomy in the guise of informed consent. As such, the physician, according to the Hippocratic writings has always had the obligation to “apply dietetic measures to the benefit of the sick according to his ability and judgment, and he ought to keep patients from harms and injustice”. The central values of the classical Hippocratic ethics were non-maleficence (doing no harm), beneficence and confidentiality. This has its earliest expression or its primary historical sources in ancient Greece and the Hippocratic Oath which characterizes physicians as a group of committed men (as women were excluded from medicine in the Greek society) set apart from and above others in the society. The model clearly explicates that the central theme for beneficence is the physician's obligation to benefit patients. This is to say that beneficence as a principle of medical ethics asserts an obligation (on the part of the physician) to help others (patients) further their important and legitimate interests and abstain from injuring them in any way, that is, psychologically, morally or physically.įrom the foregoing, it can be noted that the central question for beneficence within the patient-physician relationship is: “What does it mean for the physician to seek the greater balance of good over harm in the care of patients?” The beneficence model answers this question at least in terms of the perspective that medicine takes on the patient's best interests rather than the physician's. More commonly in medical ethics, beneficence is understood as a principle requiring that physicians provide, and to the best of their ability, positive benefits such as good health, prevent and remove harmful conditions from patients. Though traditionally, acts of beneficence are oftenly done from obligation, the principle is suggestive of altruism, humanity, unconditional love and non-obligatory optional moral ideals. However broadly used in English, the word beneficence is considered to mean “the doing of good, the active promotion of good, kindness and charity” or any action that is done for the benefit of others. ![]() As such, a number of interpretations have been conjured. The concept of beneficence though widely used in medicine is difficult to define with precision. ![]() Understanding the nature of the principle of beneficence
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