House MD uses patients' constant lying and a contrasting lecture to further explore the conflict between beneficence and autonomy in medical ethics. Medical autonomy is the patient's ability to make their own decisions regarding their health. Medical beneficence, however, is the physician's responsibility to maximize patient benefits and minimize costs. These two sides of medical ethics are constantly in conflict throughout the entire House series, with the show's motto being "Everyone Lies." The main character House, with his cynical and distrustful nature, is the ideal doctor to treat these sometimes unconsciously deceptive patients. The chosen episode "Three Stories" shows this deception of patients with a gripping detective story of three patients who all have leg pain, but one of them lies about the source of the pain. The main characters of this series are House and his colleagues James Wilson, Lisa Cuddy, Eric Foreman, Allison Cameron and Robert Chase. The most important of these characters is James Wilson, who is Dr. House's only true friend and in many cases acts as his conscience. The typical episode begins with an opening about the cold that shows an event outside the hospital that ultimately leads to that week's patient's symptoms. The team arrives at several underlying diagnoses and presents them to House who belittles their findings, claiming they are missing unaccounted factors. Clues are often missed because the patient has intentionally or unintentionally lied about symptoms or circumstances. These factors lead to the patient being misdiagnosed and, in some cases, being mistreated multiple times during the episode. This constant misdirection that... in the middle of the paper... discusses. “The world community has held that individual autonomy predominates over beneficence in making medical decisions.” (Fogoros) House MD delves into this conflict with deceptive patients who hide vital information from doctors that could lead to a correct diagnosis. The particular episode “Three Stories” shows this conflict through the lesson with House and the contrasting students. The show conveys the idea that charity is more important than autonomy, but it also realizes that this argument is difficult to make and reflects this in its episodes. Works Cited Fogoros, Rich. "Why Does America Love Doctor House?" Better health. Np, April 15, 2009. Web. February 20, 2014.Shore, David. "Three stories." The Fox Chamber doctor. May 17, 2005. Television.Thompson, Ethan and Jason Mittell. How to watch television. New York (NY): New York University, 2013. Print.