Resnik David B
Department of Medical Humanities, The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA.
J Med Philos. 2004 Jun;29(3):281-99. doi: 10.1080/03605310490500509.
The precautionary principle is a useful strategy for decision-making when physicians and patients lack evidence relating to the potential outcomes associated with various choices. According to a version of the principle defended here, one should take reasonable measures to avoid threats that are serious and plausible. The reasonableness of a response to a threat depends on several factors, including benefit vs. harm, realism, proportionality, and consistency. Since a concept of reasonableness plays an essential role in applying the precautionary principle, this principle gives physicians and patients a decision-making strategy that encourages the careful weighing and balancing of different values that one finds in humanistic approaches to clinical reasoning. Properly understood, the principle presents a worthwhile alternative to approaches to clinical reasoning that apply expected utility theory to decision problems.
当医生和患者缺乏与各种选择相关的潜在结果的证据时，预防原则是一种有用的决策策略。根据此处所捍卫的该原则的一个版本，人们应采取合理措施避免严重且似是而非的威胁。对威胁的应对措施是否合理取决于几个因素，包括利弊、现实性、相称性和一致性。由于合理性概念在应用预防原则中起着至关重要的作用，该原则为医生和患者提供了一种决策策略，鼓励在临床推理的人文方法中仔细权衡和平衡不同的价值观。正确理解的话，该原则为将预期效用理论应用于决策问题的临床推理方法提供了一个有价值的替代方案。
