PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Raanan Gillon TI - When four principles are too many: a commentary AID - 10.1136/medethics-2011-100385 DP - 2012 Apr 01 TA - Journal of Medical Ethics PG - 197--198 VI - 38 IP - 4 4099 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/4/197.short 4100 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/4/197.full SO - J Med Ethics2012 Apr 01; 38 AB - This commentary briefly argues that the four prima facie principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy and justice enable a clinician (and anybody else) to make ethical sense of the author's proposed reliance on professional guidance and rules, on law, on professional integrity and on best interests, and to subject them all to ethical analysis and criticism based on widely acceptable basic prima facie moral obligations; and also to confront new situations in the light of those acceptable principles.