Key Ethical Principles

This section of Ascension Health's Ethics Resources is intended to explain key ethical principles that are relevant to health care ethics. Only those principles considered to be most foundational have been included in this section. Other principles may be discussed in the Issues & Concepts section of the Web site.

Some of the principles discussed here are unique to the Catholic moral tradition, while others may be recognized by general secular methods as well. These key ethical principles have also been linked to legal or clinical cases that illustrate how a particular principle may factor into moral analysis within health care ethics.

Choose from the list below:

Principle of Beneficence
Principle of the Common Good
Principle of Distributive Justice
Principle of Double Effect
Principles of Formal and Material Cooperation
Principle of Human Dignity
Principle of Informed Consent
Principles of Integrity and Totality
Principle of Proportionate and Disproportionate Means
Principle of Religious Freedom
Principle of Respect for Autonomy
Principle of Respect for Persons
Principle of Stewardship
Principle of Subsidiarity
Principle of Toleration

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