ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how different ethical theories attempt to resolve the potential conflict among ethical principles. In order to understand how such conflicts can be avoided, people need first to distinguish between different kinds of moral duty. The chapter explores some strategies for resolving the conflict among principles. It illustrates how these strategies work by considering ways to reconcile social utility and justice in allocating scarce medical resources. The chapter shows the need to understand something about the way the principles are translated into more specific ethical rules and rights the kinds of maxims that tend to show up in codes of ethics and hospital policies designed to provide moral guidance to providers of health care. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) kidney allocation formula reflects concern for both doing good for patients and invoking the principle of justice to make sure the worst off get special attention.
