Accountability: The responsibility of moral agents for their own actions.
Altruism: An action in the interest or welfare of others.
Applied Ethics: The use of moral rules or principles in actual situations.
Beneficence: A primary principle of ethics, beneficence encourages individuals to "do good" and "avoid evil".
Censure: A punishment in which the offender is given a strong disapproval or harsh criticism.
Character: The totality of a person's disposition or personality.
Conflict of Interest: The clash of a public or formal obligation with a private (personal) need or interest.
Conscience: A person's belief about the rightness or wrongness of his or her actions.
Customs: Characteristic or conventional way of behaving or thinking sanctioned by convention of a culture.
Defamation: Words or pictures that have the effect of damaging a person's reputation.
Desire: A strongly held preference.
Deterrence: The use of negative consequences as a threat to discourage engaging in an action.
Dignity: The state of being honored, esteemed, respected, or inherently worthy.
Dilemma: A problem that occurs when a person is incapable of meeting all his or her moral obligations at one time.
Discrimination: Treating members of a group differently from members of another group in a way that is unfair or harmful.
Double Standard: The application of a principle that is unequally based on arbitrary considerations.
Due Process: The requirement that individuals be free from unfair, biased, or arbitrary treatment under the law. Based upon the principle that every individual has rights and should be treated objectively.
Egalitarianism: The belief that all people are equal and should have equal rights and privileges, especially in regard to social, economic, and political rights.
Elitism: The position that society depends on a particular class in order to flourish. Classes might include intellectual, social, or cultural categories.
Empirical Knowledge: information acquired through one's direct, personal experiences.
Ethics: The study of issues of right conduct in light of moral principles.
Ethnocentrism: The tendency to see one's own culture as superior, and to evaluate other cultures by exclusive reference to one's own.
Evil: Extreme immoral acts; something totally incompatible with, in opposition to, moral goodness.
Exploitation: Taking advantage of the weakness or vulnerability of a person or group for the benefit of another.
Fairness: Achieving the right balance of interests without regard to one's own feelings and without showing favor to any side in a conflict.
Fallacy: A flaw or error in reasoning.
Fiduciary: Holding something in trust for another; Being a trustee or trusteeship. Held in trust.
Freedom: the ability and possibility to choose between alternative courses of action.
Good: Assigning positive value to something.
Harm: Bodily injury, or injury to a person's basic, legitimate interests.
Humanism: A belief in the individual worth of humans and humanity.
Ideology: A collection of values and beliefs that structure the way in which the world is interpreted.
Immorality: Acts or thoughts opposed to, inconsistent with, or in violation of moral law.
Informed Consent: The state in which a patient or subject agrees to a specific (medical or research) procedure in full knowledge of all relevant facts.
Intuition: Immediate awareness of a concept of truth that is achieved without perception, memory, or reasoning.
Judgment: A person's capacity to formulate sound decisions, or the decision of a court of law.
Law: The principles and rules that govern human conduct.
Lex Talionis: The law of retaliation; an eye for an eye.
Licensure: A system whereby the government prohibits individuals from engaging in particular activities without specific approval.
Malpractice: Service provided by a professional that is not in keeping with standards of practice in that profession and that leads to harm to a person being served.
Mediation: A means of settling a dispute between parties by appealing to an impartial, neutral party.
Moral Responsibility: Answerability or accountability for actions.
Morality: Beliefs and practices related to the notion of right conduct or good character.
Morals: Principles of right conduct.
Negligence: Careless or inadvertent behavior that causes harm or damage were that harm or damage could have been avoided by a reasonable person taking reasonable precautions.
Nonmaleficence: The principle that persons should do no physical or mental harm another person. Considered a basic moral duty; thought of as the first principle of ethics.
Permissible Act: An act that is condoned by an ethical code.
Plagiarism: The act of presenting another person's words or ideas as one's own.
Pluralism: The tolerance of different and often incompatible views.
Political Correctness: Suppressing the expression of certain attitudes and the use of certain terms in the belief that they are too offensive or controversial.
Practice: The usual or accepted way of doing something.
Prejudice: A preconceived judgment.
Prima Facie Duty: An obligation for which there is an appropriate or reasonable ground.
Principle: A fundamental rule, law, or doctrine, from which other rules or judgments are derived.
Professional Ethics: Codes of conduct established by professionals to govern ethical behavior within that profession.
Prohibition: A rule or injunction against a certain activity.
Proscription: Prohibiting; outlawing
Prudence: Sound judgment in practical affairs.
Reason: The faculty, or ability, to create a logical chain of inference.
Reprimand: An offical rebuke that is publically announced.
Sanctions: Things that motivate one to at morally.
Sexual Harassment: Sexual intimidation at school, workplace, or other places of public accommodation.
Standards of Care: The general medical practices considered to meet the norms of medical professionalism in a given region.
Stewardship: Moral responsibility for the management of one's life, the right of others, and the environment.
Tort: A private or civil wrong not covered by the law that causes demonstrable damage.
Values: Those ideals that a person holds dear and finds morally compelling.
