Which of the following is an example of beneficence?

Beneficence is a fundamental ethical principle in healthcare that emphasizes the obligation of healthcare providers to act in the best interest of patients, promoting their well-being and taking actions that contribute to their health and welfare.

Providing a patient with effective treatment to improve their health exemplifies this principle directly. This action demonstrates a commitment to enhancing the patient's health status, alleviating suffering, and ensuring that the therapies or interventions administered are designed to yield positive outcomes. In this context, the healthcare provider prioritizes the patient's needs and takes steps that are intended to benefit them, thus fulfilling the ethical duty of beneficence.

The other options do not align with the principle of beneficence. Administering a placebo without patient knowledge fairly represents a violation of patient autonomy and could potentially harm the trust between patient and clinician. Refusing treatment based on personal beliefs centers on the provider's perspective, overshadowing the patient's right to receive care tailored to their needs. Maintaining confidentiality, while ethically important, relates more to the principles of autonomy and justice rather than directly fostering patient benefit. Each of these options illustrates a different aspect of ethical considerations in healthcare but does not embody the essence of beneficence as clearly as providing effective treatment does.