Ethical considerations in the treatment of breast cancer.

There is a growing awareness by the medical profession and the public of the increasing complexity of medical ethics. Advances in medical technology have raised new ethical problems. The scope of medical ethics needs to be broadened to provide guidance for new problems encountered by physicians in the rapidly developing science of medicine. Major bioethical principles have been suggested-beneficience, nonmaleficence, justice, equity, veracity, and autonomy. These are all issues debated in the general field of ethics. Society can gain greatest benefit by having these issues debated and discussed by physicians, philosophers, theologians, lawyers, and laymen. General ethical principles involved in the doctor-patient relationship have been discussed, and applications of these principles in some areas of decision making related to breast cancer management have been presented.