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2. There Are Numerous Principles Of Medical Ethics That

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2 There are numerous principles of medical ethics that are important to consider in ethical arguments and situations. In the theory of principilism, health care professionals base their ethical practice on four principles: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. These are all thought to be important principles that should be considered when examining a case involving medical ethics. While it is of the greatest benefit for components of each of these principles to play a part in deciding what is ethically appropriate, I believe that autonomy is the principle that holds the utmost importance. The purpose of this paper is to develop an argument in favour of the statement that autonomy is the most important point to consider when …show more content…

A common denominator in these discussions was the principle of autonomy. Most people agreed that the issue with female genital mutilation is that it is often performed on nonconsenting minors, meaning that if people had been making the choice to have this done to themselves, it would be acceptable as it is only themselves being affected. In the discussion regarding whether a physician should tell a terminal patient their diagnosis if they are thought to be emotionally unstable, the widely accepted answer was still yes, as he should have autonomy over the rest of his medical decisions. In talking about Oregan’s Death with Dignity Act, a lot of people agreed with physician assisted suicide for terminally ill patients meeting certain requirements; these patients make the autonomous decision to end their own lives, rather than endure the agony that living out their disease would likely cause them. While it can be argued that the “premature” death could cause emotional harm to the family members and therefore does not comply with the principle of autonomy. This is irrelevant, as it is not changing the result of the illness but only speeding up the process. Through the multiple articles and discussions

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