Nonharming

Nonharming refers to an ethical stance that aims to avoid causing harm to others through actions, omissions, or policies. It emphasizes minimizing physical, psychological, social, and environmental injury to living beings, communities, and ecosystems. Some formulations describe harm as any unjust or avoidable suffering, while others focus on the absence of avoidable injury. In many traditions it functions as a negative duty—an obligation not to harm—rather than a positive mandate to do good.

The concept appears in religious and philosophical traditions, notably ahimsa in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and in secular ethics through the principle of nonmaleficence in medicine. In contemporary discourse it is often paired with harm avoidance against systemic injustices, risk minimization, and precaution. It can act as a constraint on action, sometimes in tension with other moral aims such as beneficence, justice, or autonomy, highlighting that not all good outcomes justify harmful means.

Applications span healthcare, research, law, and public policy, where practitioners aim to prevent or limit harm to patients, participants, clients, and communities. In technology and business, nonharming informs design, governance, and accountability to reduce harm from products, algorithms, data practices, or environmental impacts. Some frameworks formalize it as a duty or as part of ethical codes, accompanied by mechanisms to assess and mitigate risk.

Challenges include balancing nonharming with competing duties, defining and measuring harm across domains, and addressing unintended consequences. Critics note that strict adherence may impede necessary interventions or lead to moral paralysis in crises. Cultural differences, ambiguous outcomes, and varying thresholds for harm complicate consensus, requiring ongoing dialogue, transparent assessment, and context-specific interpretation.