Primum non nocere

Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means "first, do no harm." The phrase is sometimes recorded as primum nil nocere.

Non-maleficence, which is derived from the maxim, is one of the principal precepts of bioethics that all healthcare students are taught in school and is a fundamental principle throughout the world. Another way to state it is that, "given an existing problem, it may be better not to do something, or even to do nothing, than to risk causing more harm than good." It reminds the health care provider that they must consider the possible harm that any intervention might do. It is invoked when debating the use of an intervention that carries an obvious risk of harm but a less certain chance of benefit.

Non-maleficence is often contrasted with its corollary, beneficence.

Origin

The origin of the phrase is uncertain. The Hippocratic Oath includes the promise "to abstain from doing harm" (Greek: ἐπὶ δηλήσει δὲ καὶ ἀδικίῃ εἴρξειν) but does not include the precise phrase. Perhaps the closest approximation in the Hippocratic Corpus is in Epidemics: "The physician must ... have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm" (book I, sect. 11, trans. Adams, Greek: ἀσκέειν, περὶ τὰ νουσήματα, δύο, ὠφελέειν, ἢ μὴ βλάπτειν).

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 2)

The second season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 27, 2001 and ended May 16, 2002. The series stars William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger.

Plot

The murder of a Police Chief leads Willows and Brown to Miami ("Cross Jurisdictions"), in the second season of CSI. The Las Vegas CSIs investigate another series of gruesome, unprecedented, and unsolvable crimes, including the murder of Catherine's brother ("Burked"), the disappearance of a University student ("Chaos Theory"), the death of a construction worker ("Overload"), the discovery of a decomposed body in a bag ("Bully for You"), a scuba diver discovered up a tree in the desert ("Scuba Doobie-Doo"), a fetish murder ("Slaves of Las Vegas"), and a death at a spa ("Alter Boys"). Meanwhile, Catherine and Sara investigate both a suspected suicide-by-train ("Caged") and a homicide at a remote convenience store ("And Then There Were None"), Warrick is given the opportunity to head the crime lab ("Ellie"), Grissom and Willows come to face to face with a serial killer in a courtroom ("Identity Crisis"), and Nick studies the death of a woman who drowned in the desert ("Anatomy of a Lye"), after finding himself the target of a stalker ("Stalker").