ABSTRACT
Medical knowledge and technology have advanced at a spectacular rate. This voyage of discovery has led to a wealth of ethical issues unimaginable to the original followers of the Hippocratic Oath. There are four widely accepted general principles of medical ethics, which go towards such a framework: autonomy, justice, beneficence and non-maleficence. Autonomy is about respecting patients’ wishes and facilitating and encouraging their input into the medical decision making process. To respect a patient’s autonomy is to give that individual a greater balance of power in the doctor patient relationship; it entails answering and explaining, not only what is wrong with that person, but the options for investigation and treatment and the associated risks and benefits. In the context of health care, justice implies an impartial and fair approach to treatment and the distribution of resources. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy defines distributive justice as “the link between a distributive system and the maximisation of well being”.
