Whereas some approaches in bioethics proceed by applying principles derived from independent ethical theories to individual cases (a “top-down” approach), others proceed by examining individual cases in order to elucidate the principles that seem to guide most people’s thinking about bioethical issues in actual practice (a “bottom-up” approach). One very influential approach along these lines, known as the “four principles” of bioethics, attempts to describe a set of minimum moral conditions on the behaviour of health care professionals. The first principle, autonomy, entails that health care professionals should respect the autonomous decisions of competent adults. The second principle, beneficence, holds that they should aim to do good—i.e., to promote the interests of their patients. The third principle, nonmaleficence, requires that they should do no harm. Finally, the fourth principle, justice, holds that they should act fairly when the interests of different individuals or groups are in competition—e.g., by promoting the fair allocation of health care resources.
According to proponents of the four-principles approach, one of its advantages is that, because the principles are independent of any particular ethical theory, they can be used by theorists working in a variety of different traditions. Both the ... (200 of 4,089 words)