APPENDIX C
GLOSSARY
A
actionable negligence: negligence for which legal responsibility (liability) can be
assessed (para 4-1a).
action (defendant): the party against whom damages are sought for injury in a
tort suit (para 4-2a).
assault: a threatening approach that plus a person in fear or battery,
unauthorized touching (para 4-3b(1)).
attitude: a grouping of beliefs around a specific object or situation; how one feels
about something (para 2-2d).
B
battery: intentional touching of another person without authorization
(para 4-3b(2)).
belief: the conviction that something is true (para 2-2c).
* beneficence: the concept that the role of the health care provider is to care for
the patient, to do good (para 1-3g).
biomedical ethics: a philosophical study of what is right and wrong in the
modern biological sciences, medicine, health care, and medical research
(para 1-5a).
* brain death: the irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or
of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem (para 2-9d).
breach of duty: failure to provide a specific duty that is owed to the patient
(para 4-7b).
* Term occurring in MD0067, Health Care Ethics II.
C-1
MD0066