What term describes the field that addresses ethical issues in health care including life-and-death decisions and life-sustaining technologies?

• A. Bioethics
• B. Autonomy
• C. Beneficence
• D. Nonmaleficence

Answer: (A)

Bioethics is the field that studies moral issues in health care, including life-and-death decisions and life-sustaining technologies. It brings together medicine, philosophy, law, and social sciences to analyze questions like when to withhold or withdraw treatment, patient autonomy, informed consent, allocation of scarce resources, and the use of devices that prolong life. These situations require balancing patient wishes, medical realities, and societal values, so professionals can navigate ethical dilemmas with thoughtful reasoning and policy considerations. The other options are ethical principles used within bioethics—autonomy refers to respecting a patient’s right to make decisions; beneficence means acting in the patient’s best interest; nonmaleficence means avoiding harm. While central to ethical analysis, they do not denote the field itself.