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Beneficence

Beneficence is the duty to act in the patient's best interests.

Updated 12 October 2026 (1 minute read)

Summary

  • It covers more than treating disease. Comfort, dignity and what the patient values all count.
  • What is best is judged for that patient. The same treatment can be right for one person and wrong for another.
  • It often pulls against autonomy, when a patient chooses something their doctor believes is bad for them.

Interview questions

  • What does acting in a patient's best interests mean to you?
  • A patient wants to keep smoking after a heart attack. How do you respond?
  • Can doing good for a patient ever justify overriding what they want?

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Cases that turn on it

Birthmarks mistaken for bruises Beneficence Most Asian and Black babies are born with blue grey birthmarks that can look like bruises. In 2024 a mother in Hampshire was held overnight by police after her son's were taken as a sign of abuse. Indi Gregory and best interests Beneficence Indi was eight months old and had a disease with no cure. Her parents wanted treatment to continue, and a hospital in Rome offered to take her. Judges in England ruled that it was in her best interests to stop. Martha's Rule and patient safety Beneficence Martha Mills died of sepsis at 13 after her parents' worries were not acted on. Every acute hospital in England now has to offer the rule named after her, and it has been used more than 19,000 times. Resident doctor strikes Beneficence Doctors in training in England first went on strike over pay in March 2023. By the time they accepted a deal, by 53% to 47%, the argument was as much about a shortage of jobs. Sudiksha Thirumalesh and mental capacity Beneficence She was 19, awake, and wanted to try an experimental treatment abroad. A judge decided she could not make that choice for herself. Ten months after her death, the Court of Appeal said the judge had got it wrong.

More NHS hot topics, medical ethics case studies and medical school interview questions are in AlphaMED Resources, which we add to and update through the application cycle.