In 1979, Beauchamp and Childress formulated what is known as the ‘‘four principles’’ approach to medical/health care ethics. The principles are: Beneficence - the obligation to provide benefits and balance benefits against risks. Non-maleficence - the obligation to avoid the causation of harm Respect for autonomy - the obligation to respect the decision-making capacities of autonomous persons Justice - obligations of fairness in the distribution of benefits and risks In this workshop, we will use these as an analytical tool in addressing and discussing various ethical questions within palliative care (other than euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide). We shall pay particular attention to what have been called the ‘small’ ethical questions, using appropriate clinical examples. First, one named speaker will deal with each one of the principles in turn, including an exploration of their basic meaning, and with an eye to particular ethical questions within palliative care that flow from it. This part of the workshop will then be followed by a general discussion, which may enable us to reach some sort of consensus in mapping out those questions which require research, and also perhaps the limits of the four principles themselves.With regard to research, we will explore how empirical studies within palliative care may be developed in such a way that one or more of the principles can be examined empirically in specific contexts. With regard to the limits of the principles, there is the question of their scope and weighting: a) do they apply universally, or are they culturally relative and, if so, to what extent and in what sense?; b) presuming the principles can be shown to be a useful construct in different cultural settings, how are they to be balanced against each other?.