Page 21 - Ethics and Law
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Nonmaleficence
An ethical principle that is typically traced back to the Oath of Hippocrates is to “first,
do no harm,” or to refrain from engaging in any acts of maleficence in the clinical
context, that is, acts that would result in harm to the patient.
▪ Acts of maleficence can be intentional or unintentional, and a large percentage of
the latter kind happen as a result of either negligence or ignorance on the part of
the health care professional.
▪ Example of the former would be a surgeon who fails to exercise due diligence in
scrubbing prior to surgery, the result of such negligence being that the surgical
patient contracts an infection.
