Question

Principlism, especially in the context of bioethics in the United States, has often been critiqued for raising the principle of autonomy to the highest place, such that it trumps all other principles or values. How would you rank the importance of each of the four principles? How do you believe they would be ordered in the context of the Christian biblical narrative? Refer to the topic overview and other topic study materials in your response.

Answer 1

Research on human participants are mainly aimed at developing generalized knowledge that improve health outcomes, increase understanding of diseases and is ethically justified by its social values. When conducting a research on human participants, there has some inherent risks and possibilities of harm to the participants or communities. Therefore, protection of participants should be built into the study design of the study. There are 4 basic ethical principles in bioethics. The 4 principlism are

a) Autonomy (respect for the decision making capacities)

b) Non-maleficence ( do not cause harm to others)

c) Beneficence ( prevent harm, provide benefits and balance benefits against risks and costs) and

d) Justice ( a fair distribution of benefits, risks and costs)

These principles have been enunciated for protecting the dignity, rights, safety and well-being of the research participants. Each principles have there own importance or values in the ethical point of view. Moreover, different worldviews would rank the importance and priority of principles differently.

According to the Christian overview, each principles have their own importance in the ethical point of view. For instance, in case of a patient with Jehovah ...................., who refused to take blood transfusion, the physician cannot be insist the patient to undergo blood transfusion. In such cases, he should have to maintain a respect for the patient right to treatment. So, principle of autonomy is important based on a ethical point of view. But other principles also have equal importance when viewed with certain critical situations.

Beneficence and non-maleficence: Principle of beneficence meaning bring benefits to a participant. For instance, consider a patient who is unconscious for past 2 weeks and has no ability to communicate her desire for or against treatment. . Based on the interest of a physician he advised for temporary dialysis. But, the patient who is unconscious for weeks this dialysis creates an extra burden for the pain. In this case, the physician intention is to reduce the risk but it is actually do not consider to be the beneficent course of action and also causing an extra burden or harm for the patient. So, in this case, principle of beneficence have an important role. This is closely related to principle of non-maleficence.

Justice: Questions of justice usually come to the forefront interms of the equal distribution of quality care without any discrimination.

So, from the point of view, each principles have their own importance and values.