This commentary briefly argues that the four prima facie principles of 
beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy and justice enable a 
clinician (and anybody else) to make ethical sense of the author's proposed 
reliance on professional guidance and rules, on law, on professional integrity 
and on best interests, and to subject them all to ethical analysis and criticism 
based on widely acceptable basic prima facie moral obligations; and also to 
confront new situations in the light of those acceptable principles.