Applying the Principle of Double Effect

Authors

Andria E. Quirindongo, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2013

Volume

13

Issue

1

Keywords

Palliative care, pharmacotherapy

Abstract

When ethical conflicts arise in clinical cases, physicians may need specific guidelines to help justify the decisions they make for the best interest of their patients. One such guideline is the principle of double effect (PDE), employed in terminally ill patients. Palliative care physicians look to the PDE when a single action for a terminal patient has two known effects: a desired and intended result and an unintended, yet foreseeable one (Schwartz, 2004).

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Quirindongo, Andria E., "Applying the Principle of Double Effect" (2013). CedarEthics Online. 50.
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/cedar_ethics_online/50