Topic summary
Non-maleficence
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Primum non nocere.
Non-maleficence is often contrasted with its complement, beneficence. Young and Wagner argued that, for healthcare professionals and other professionals subject to a moral code, in general beneficence takes priority over non-maleficence (“first, do good,” not “first, do no harm”) both historically and philosophically. Indeed, beneficence is the Hippocratic priority both in the Oath and in Epidemics I, which "First do no harm" and "Primum non nocere" reverse quite contrarily to Hippocratic and other classical authorities.