Question

John is 10 year old with leukemia and treatments have not worked. There is a very promising experimental treatment, however it is far away and the city the family would have to move to does not offer good job prospects for the parents. What is the ethical dilemma surrounding this situation?

Answer 1

In medical ethics ,the core idea is that decisions for children will be made by others i.e children do not make their own choices ir when they do make choices it is over sighted by others. Children are not autonomus and the sort of decisions that adults make for themselves,when made by a child,maybe overruled by that childs parents or by others in authority over them.Children are ignored in medical ethics.But children are able to express their views or thoughts which maybe taken into account by an adult in coming to a decision..Children are evolving rapidly as a person and they are not quite sure about what they want.The other reason is that child will not be able to understand the complexities of the risks and benefits of the medical treatments available.Therefore parental aithority must take the part of medical decisions for children that autonomy plays for adults,i.e parents should choose for children.Sometimes this is expressed as a parental right to make decisions for children.Secondly medicalreasons could be guided by the interests,well being or welfare of the child.