Ethics & Law · single question
Community water fluoridation, a public health measure benefiting the population's dental health, creates an ethical tension between which two principles?
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Correct answer: A. Beneficence and autonomy
Community water fluoridation exemplifies a classic public health ethics tension: it provides clear population-level benefit (beneficence, by reducing caries rates broadly) but is implemented without each individual's specific consent, since it's added to a shared water supply that all users consume regardless of personal preference — creating tension with individual autonomy.