TY - JOUR T1 - When four principles are too many: a commentary JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 197 LP - 198 DO - 10.1136/medethics-2011-100385 VL - 38 IS - 4 AU - Raanan Gillon Y1 - 2012/04/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/4/197.abstract N2 - 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. ER -