Ethics are standards of behavior that define the way a person should act within a given group, community, or society. Because of the complex nature of modern life, multiple codes of ethics can exist for a single individual all at once. For example, a person might be guided simultaneously by the ethical responsibilities associated with being an American, being in a romantic partnership, being a member of a church, and being a parent. In almost every important aspect of an individual’s life, a system of ethics is at work.

Although the two concepts are often confused with one another and the terms used interchangeably, ethics and morals are different. Ethics are standards of behavior that determine the way a person should act within a given group, community, or society. Morals, on the other hand, are sets of values that come to us through family, religious affiliation, self-reflection, or by other means and by which we personally judge what is right and wrong. To put it another way, we follow our ethics because the group we are a part of says it’s the right way to act, and we follow our morals because we personally believe a certain thing is right or wrong.

Although they are distinct things, a person’s ethics and morals are usually in alignment. But that’s not always the case. For example, the American Medical Association, in its Code of Medical Ethics, says “euthanasian is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer” and that “permitting physicians to engage in euthanasia would ultimately cause more harm than good.” If a physician in the US has a personal belief that euthanasia is wrong, then that physician’s morals align with the set of professional ethics the American Medical Association requires the physician to adhere to.

A crucial aspect of ethical behavior involves the multiplicity of ethical frameworks that individuals may navigate in their lives. People often belong to multiple communities, professions, or belief systems, each of which may have its own set of ethical principles and norms. These various codes of ethics can sometimes overlap or conflict with each other, adding complexity to ethical decision-making.

Many professions have their own sets of ethics for those employed in the field. This includes medical ethics, which guides professionals working within the field of health care. As the American Medical Association states in their Code of Medical Ethics, “The medical profession has long subscribed to a body of ethical statements developed primarily for the benefit of the patient. As a member of this profession, a physician must recognize responsibility to patients first and foremost, as well as to society, to other health professionals, and to self.”

While medical ethics and the law both serve to guide behavior and decision-making, they operate on different principles and have distinct sources of authority. Medical ethics are not the same as the law. Ethics are standards of conduct that derive from a certain group’s sense of right and wrong and that guide an individual within that group to make correct decisions. Laws, on the other hand, are rules written by a governmental entity to protect its citizens and to ensure that balance is maintained within society. Ethics are internal ideals that a person in a group is encouraged to follow. Laws are external ideas that a person is required to follow.

Modern medical ethics is guided by a set of core principles that serve as the foundation for ethical decision-making in healthcare. Here's a brief explanation of each:

An overall code of ethics is expected of everyone who works in the health care field. The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association of physicians in the US, and as such, the Code of Medical Ethics adopted by the AMA is intended specifically for physicians. However, the principles described in the AMA’s Code represent concepts that are similar to those principles found in codes of professional ethics adopted by other health care-related associations, including, but not limited to:

The origins of medical ethics go back thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, during the 27th century BCE, a physician named Imhotep developed a system that promoted the long-held notions that physicians should do good for patients, should never do harm to patients, and should always be truthful with their patients. The same principles were developed over time in Mesopotamia, India, Greece, and in other parts of the ancient world.

In contemporary medical ethics, cultural awareness and human rights have become increasingly integral aspects of healthcare practices. Cultural awareness is an acknowledgment of and respect for the differences between one's own attitudes, beliefs, and values and those of individuals who practice different religions and who come from different countries, backgrounds, ethnicities, and/or cultures. Because health care professionals encounter patients from a wide variety of backgrounds, an understanding of potential cultural differences can help to ensure that health care is administered in a respectful way.

Autonomy is the idea that a person is free to make their own independent decisions. In health care, autonomy means a patient has the right to choose or to refuse any treatment offered or recommended, so long as the patient is mentally and physically capable of making such a decision. Even if the choices patients make seem like poor decisions, health care professionals are ethically bound to permit patients to determine what is in their own best interest.

Beneficence means doing good. The idea of beneficence in medicine is thousands of years old and is central to the entire goal of health care. Health care professionals have an ethical obligation to help their patients. In addition to doing good for individual patients, beneficence includes an obligation for health care professionals to do good for the sake of society. To illustrate this dual obligation, we can use the example of vaccines. When a health care professional administers a vaccine, the patient has an obvious individual benefit: namely, the patent will now be safe from a particular disease. But society also benefits because herd immunity (the collective immunity within a particular population of people) has also increased, thereby reducing the chances that a particular disease will make its way through that population.

Confidentiality within health care is the idea that the information shared between a health care professional and a patient will remain private unless the patient consents to allow the information to be released. Like other principles of medical ethics, the idea of confidentiality is very old. The Hippocratic Oath, originating in ancient Greece, states, “whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession . . . if it be what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets.”

In health care, justice refers to fairness. In other words, medical resources must be distributed in a way that is fair, equal, and consistent. The notion of justice in health care is long-time principle of medical ethics and can be traced as far back as the 18th century BCE to the time of Hammurabi’s Code in ancient Mesopotamia.

Maleficence means doing harm to others, and so, non-maleficence means not doing harm. The idea of non-maleficence as a fundamental part of health care is thousands of years old. The phrase first, do no harm––which demands that non-maleficence take precedence over all other ethical concerns––is central to medical ethics.

Veracity means being truthful, and specific to health care, it means being truthful with patients. As with confidentiality, veracity helps to create trust between a health care professional and a patient. If patients feel health care professionals are being open and honest, they are more likely to be open and honest in return. The opposite is also true. If patients feel health care professionals are not being truthful, they are more likely to withhold information that might be important for determining the course of treatment.