Medical ethics is a branch of ethics that deals with the moral principles and guidelines that govern healthcare practices and medical decision-making. It provides a framework to help healthcare professionals navigate complex moral issues that arise in patient care, research, and public health. These principles aim to protect patient rights, ensure fairness, and maintain trust between patients and healthcare providers.

Key Principles of Medical Ethics:

Autonomy: Respecting a patient’s right to make their own healthcare decisions, even if the healthcare provider disagrees with those decisions. This includes informed consent, where patients must be given all necessary information to make voluntary decisions about their treatment.
Beneficence: Acting in the best interest of the patient by promoting their well-being and providing beneficial treatments. Healthcare providers are expected to do good by improving the patient's health and quality of life.
Non-Maleficence: The principle of "do no harm." Healthcare professionals must avoid causing harm to patients. This involves carefully weighing the risks and benefits of treatments to ensure that the benefits outweigh any potential harm.
Justice: Ensuring fairness in medical care and the equitable distribution of healthcare resources. This principle emphasizes that patients should be treated equally and that care should not be influenced by factors such as race, gender, financial status, or social class.
Confidentiality: Protecting patient privacy by ensuring that personal health information is kept confidential and only shared with those directly involved in the patient's care or when required by law.
Veracity: Healthcare providers have an obligation to be honest with patients. This includes giving truthful information about diagnoses, treatments, and prognosis.
Fidelity: Being loyal and faithful to the commitments made to patients, maintaining trust, and upholding the ethical standards of the medical profession.

Applications of Medical Ethics:

End-of-life care: Ethical dilemmas around euthanasia, palliative care, and respecting a patient's wishes when they want to refuse life-sustaining treatments.
Informed consent: Ensuring that patients understand the risks, benefits, and alternatives of treatments before agreeing to them.
Resource allocation: Deciding how to fairly distribute limited medical resources, such as organ transplants or critical care beds.
Confidentiality issues: Balancing the need to maintain patient privacy with the potential need to disclose information for public health reasons (e.g., contagious diseases).