Summary

These four principles of health care ethics were developed by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress in their 1985 Principles of Biomedical Ethics. They "provide medical practitioners with guidelines to make decisions when they inevitably face complicated situations involving patients" (SJU, 2020) The principles are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.
It is arguable that the principles represented a turning point in medical ethics. "Beauchamp and Childress were writing at a time when the expertise of doctors meant they often took extreme measures in doing what they had decided was in the best interests of their patient. They adopted a paternalistic approach, treating their patients like uninformed children rather than autonomous, capable adults" (The Ethics Centre, 2017) Autonomy embraces the idea of 'informed consent', which requires disclosure of information, respect for decision-making, and provision of advice where requested.
The principle of non-maleficence updates the Hippocratic Oath, as in an age of cancer treatments and surgery, the admonition to "do no harm" required an update. The principle of beneficence encourages professionals to do good where they can, and can be interpreted as "the principle of acting with the best interest of the other in mind" (Aldcroft, 2012). Finally, the principle of justice, expressed perhaps as fairness, "is the principle that helps us determine who gets priority in these cases" (The Ethics Centre, 2017).

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