1. Introduction
Ethics is an essential part of the nursing profession and forms the basis thereof. There is a code of Ethics by the South African Nursing Council to remind all nursing practitioners of their responsibilities towards individuals, families, and the community. This assignment will look at the importance of ethics regarding the meaning, development of ethics, different ethical principles and the application of ethical theories in nursing education. (SANC; As stated in the preamble of the International Council of Nurses (ICN, 2012) and the South African Nursing Council (SANC, 2013) Code of Ethics for nurses, nurse practitioners have 4 responsibilities, which are: “the promotion of health, the prevention of illness, the restoration of health and the alleviation of suffering”.

2. The meaning of ethics
The word “ethic” is derived from the Greek ethikos, meaning custom or character, but the meaning has been extended to the study of moral beliefs. Ethics is concerned with aspects of morality, moral problems and moral judgements as they pertain to a particular group, in this case nurses. The concept of morals generally refers to the rules for proper behaviour – what is right and wrong, what should or should not be done. Ethics can therefore be explained as the norms and values of groups which guide their judgement of what is right or wrong in the area of human behaviour. (Mellish,2010:117). A modern definition of ethics is the study of values in human behaviour, or