Which term describes a conflict between ethical principles?

• A. Advance Directive
• B. Ethical Dilemma
• C. Incident Report
• D. Chain of Command

Answer: (B)

An ethical dilemma occurs when two or more moral principles pull in opposite directions, making it hard to choose a course of action that upholds every value. In practice, this means there isn’t a clear right answer because respecting one principle may violate another. For example, in healthcare, honoring a patient’s autonomy to refuse treatment can conflict with the principle of beneficence, which aims to do what’s best for the patient’s health. Another scenario is balancing confidentiality with the duty to protect others from harm, where keeping a patient’s information private might conflict with preventing potential harm to someone else.

Advance Directive is a written instruction from a patient about future care, guiding decisions when the patient can’t communicate; it expresses preferences but doesn’t describe a conflict between ethical principles by itself. An Incident Report records an event for accountability and quality improvement, not a moral disagreement about how to act. Chain of Command concerns who has authority in an organization, not the weighing of ethical values in a decision.

Thus, the term that describes a conflict between ethical principles is an ethical dilemma.