Clinical Applications: Physicians s

Clinical Applications: Physicians should not provide ineffective treatments to patients as these offer risk with no possibility of benefit and thus have a chance of harming patients. In addition, physicians must not do anything that would purposely harm patients without the action being balanced by proportional benefit. Because many medications, procedures, and interventions cause harm in addition to benefit, the principle of non-maleficence provides little concrete guidance in the care of patients. Where this principle is most helpful is when it is balanced against beneficence. In this context non-maleficence posits that the risks of treatment (harm) must be understood in light of the potential benefits. Ultimately, the patient must decide whether the potential benefits outweigh the potential harms.