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?

  1. Beneficence and autonomy
  2. Veracity and autonomy
  3. Veracity and beneficence
  4. Beneficence and nonmaleficence
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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.

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