Beneficence in healthcare refers to which of the following?

Beneficence in healthcare is a principle that emphasizes the ethical obligation of healthcare professionals to act in the best interest of their patients. This encompasses maximizing benefits and minimizing harms, ensuring that patients receive care that is not only effective but also compassionate. This principle requires practitioners to evaluate the potential positive outcomes of treatments and interventions while also considering the risks involved.

In practice, beneficence may involve taking steps to provide treatments that improve a patient's health, as well as avoiding treatments that could cause significant harm. This principle serves as a guiding framework for clinical decision-making and reinforces the moral imperative that healthcare professionals strive to do good for their patients.

The other choices pertain to different ethical principles in healthcare. For instance, fair distribution of services relates more to justice, protecting patient confidentiality aligns with the principle of confidentiality and privacy, and upholding patient autonomy focuses on the patient's right to make decisions about their own healthcare. Each of these principles plays a vital role in ethical healthcare, but beneficence specifically centers on the active promotion of patient welfare through a balance of positive and negative outcomes.