The Importance Of Nonmaleficence In Medical Practice

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Childress and Beauchamp’s take on nonmaleficence illuminate the controversies within medical practices such as: Withholding and Withdrawing Treatment, and Ordinary and Extraordinary Measures, thus persuading me to believe nonmaleficence is the most important of the “Georgetown Principles.” “Above all [or first] do no harm” is the epitome of nonmaleficence in a medical setting. Within a clinical setting, patients expect physicians to relieve their ailments, while also taking the proper precautions to not harm them, especially in life-sustaining situations. Nonmaleficence reaches a controversy when determining whether to withhold treatment from a patient or to withdraw treatment from a patient already receiving it. Beauchamp and Childress determine that withholding a treatment for a …show more content…
Stopping a treatment of drugs or a procedure seems to be a violation of the agreed terms when the treatment was started – it is assumed that when a medical treatment is begun, it will be carried out to its full extent. There is also a causal burden of responsibility when a doctor withdraws treatment. Generally, withdrawing treatment leads to a faster death of the patient, causing the doctor and caregiver and to feel responsible for that death. Withholding treatment does not have these same effects, so it is easier for both the physician and the medical decision maker to agree to not start treatment opposed to starting and then withdrawing. Beauchamp and Childress state that withdrawing treatment and withholding treatment are not as different as originally thought to be, however, I disagree with
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