[Ethical principles in medical practice]

Abstract

In the present work, we present an analysis of ethics in the practice of medicine, as a fundamental element of the quality of medical care. We present a brief review of factors related to the development of ethics. In this paper we have shown different institutional and societal conditions for the definition and promotion of ethics. We present a conceptual analysis of the quality of medical care and how ethics interplays with the care given by medical practitioners and how that combination of quality medical care and adherence to ethical principles are used to solve health problems, with a high-degree of satisfaction to both patients and their families. Before entering into the conceptualization of each of the ethical principles of medical practice, the concepts of morality, ethics, bioethics, medical ethics, and ethical deontology are defined. We continue with the proposal of ten ethical principles of medical practice that include charity, fairness, autonomy, confidentiality, respect, dignity, solidarity, honesty, loyalty, and justice, and the concept of each of them, as well as the precepts that each principle contains.