Evaluation of ethical theories and/or principles and their application in a critical health and/or social care contextIntroductionAn acute and critical clinical scenario involving potentially fatalities that require a high degree of accuracy with a very small allowable margin of error requires rapid judgment and response from intellectually and emotionally prepared social service professionals (Stannard, Benner, and Kyriakidis 2011 p. 1). In this situation, all ethical principles are found to be in conflict with each other, requiring the professional to use ethical theory to enable him or her to determine the relevant principle applicable in this particular situation through a meta-level evaluation of all possible clinical decisions with all their possible consequences and not just on the consequences only (Zygmond & Boorhem 1989 p. 5). Critical evaluation of the application of ethical principles to resolve the identified ethical dilemma According to Stannard, Benner, and Kyriakidis (2011), acute and critical patient conditions require social service professionals to respond through reflection in action (clinical reasoning on the move ). Any moral issues arising from this situation must be addressed with autonomy, justice, non-maleficence and beneficence through careful identification, analysis and resolution while combating the issue at hand (Mueller, Hook & Fleming 2004 p. 554) . According to Kitchener's (1985) model proposed by Zygmond and Boorhem (1989), critical-evaluative level reasoning, including ethical rules, principles and theories, generates the required knowledge that must be used to clarify, change and modify beliefs about customer attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions...... middle of article...... Business Ethics, Department of Economics, Stanford University, CA 94305-6072, USAGlod, J. (2008). Principles and Ethics of Clinical Research, Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, The Cancer Institute of New JerseyHinamn, LM. (2010). Ethical Theories: A Very Brief Overview, Phil.321: Social Ethics, Summer 2010, University of San Diego Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Nd. Principles of Biomedical EthicsBulger, JW. (2007). Principlism, teaching ethics, fall 2007O'Neill, O. (2001). Autonomy and Trust in Bioethics, The Gifford Lecturers, University of EdinburghJohnson, J. Nd. Some major ethical theories, document 2: Ethics and justice, philosophy 164: medical ethicsLawrence, DJ. (2007). The four principles of biomedical ethics: a basis for the current bioethical debate, Journal of Chiropractic Humanities