Essential Ethics

The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne

Essential Ethics, from the Children’s Bioethics Centre at The Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne, Australia) presents discussion of challenging cases that come up when treating children. Hear the most up-to-date thinking and draw knowledge from the ethics toolkit. After a decade or more of experience our team of world-recognised ethicists takes on the hardest cases. Essential Ethics is informative, interesting and always relevant. Hosted by Professor John Massie, a clinician and bioethicist at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.

Last refreshed: January 14th, 2026 at 5:15 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

Special: Pandemic Ethics in a Children’s Hospital - Disability in the time of Covid-19

How do we ration limited healthcare resources without discriminating against people with disabilities? Host, Professor John Massie enlists Dr Giuliana Antolovich, a paediatrician working in Developmental Medicine at the RCH, to shed light on this important topic. Zooming in to the conversation is ethicist Professor Lynn Gillam.

May 22, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 9

Special: Pandemic Ethics in a Children’s Hospital - Refusal of Covid-19 Testing

A 5-year-old boy is brought to the ED with high fever, lethargy, cough and breathing difficulties. There is no contact with a COVID-19 case or overseas travel. The boy has moderately severe autistic spectrum disorder associated with a fear of medical procedures. His mother refuses a COVID-19 nasal and throat swab on the basis that it will severely upset him and set his ASD treatment back. Is it acceptable to accede to mother’s wishes and not do a COVID swab? Professor John Massie navigates the i...

May 04, 2020•13 min•Season 1Ep. 8

Special: Pandemic Ethics in a Children’s Hospital. Allocation of resources – Beyond ventilators

The SARS-Co2 coronavirus has caused the pandemic that many suspected would come, but which has still caught health services by surprise. Medical resources are never infinite, even in wealthy countries with well-developed healthcare systems like Australia. Host, Professor John Massie explores with guest, Professor Lynn Gillam some of the ethical issues around allocation of resources to children during the COVID19 pandemic.

Apr 30, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 7

Special: Pandemic Ethics in a Children’s Hospital. Balancing patient care with protection of staff

The COVID-19 pandemic has created pressure on healthcare services and healthcare workers like never before. Essential Ethics host Professor John Massie is joined by Prof Lynn Gillam and Prof Clare Delany of the Children’s Bioethics Centre to consider the ethical principles that should be the bedrock of the institutional and individual healthcare worker response to the pandemic.

Apr 06, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 6

Classic Conundrum: Just get on with it. A parent driven paradigm

When parents advocated for early leg amputation and prosthesis fitting for their child, rather than go through a lengthy series of leg salvaging operations and rehabilitation, orthopaedic surgeon Dr Chris Harris faced an ethical dilemma. Should he acquiesce to the parents' request? Or should he steer them to a pathway they don’t want to take? Thank goodness we have Prof Lynn Gillam back in the chair to guide us through the ethical principles and find a way forward that everyone can be satisfied ...

Mar 27, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 5

Classic Conundrum: The heart of the matter

Left ventricular assist devices have made it possible to keep children with heart failure alive while waiting for a heart transplant, yet at a significant risk of strokes and prolonged hospitalisation. But what do you do when the number of children waiting for a heart transplant is much greater than the number of hearts that become available? Dr Jacob Mathew can deal with almost any cardiac emergency, but this one troubles him the most. Professor Lynn Gillam helps to find a clear path through th...

Mar 13, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 4

Classic Conundrum: She's my child and I know what's best

Jade is a 14-year-old girl with a high grade medulloblastoma (brain tumour). She presented with headaches but no evidence of neurological impairment. She is an otherwise healthy year eight student. Primary surgical resection with post-operative radiotherapy is the recommended treatment. There is a 30 percent chance of responding. But it's likely she will have side-effects (intellectual disability, seizures and/or problems using her arms and legs), and still die two to three years later. Without ...

Feb 26, 2020•43 min•Season 1Ep. 3

Classic Conundrum: What to do when a patient rejects your recommended treatment

Your patient is a young adult, but still under 18 years. He doesn’t want cancer treatment that will affect his appearance. But this will put him at risk of a less certain cure. Dr Diane Hanna is not fazed as to what to say, but how to make the best outcome happen is her dilemma. Professor Clare Delaney helps us consider the rights of the child to make a decision about their healthcare, but also, when we might have to override their decision.

Sep 02, 2019•37 min•Season 1Ep. 2

Classic Conundrum: Wait on, who’s the doctor here?

What do you do when parents demand investigations and treatments for their children, that you think are unnecessary? Dr Giuliana Antolovich, experienced paediatrician and straight-talker, along with clear-thinking academic director Professor Lynn Gillam, tackle this one with host, Professor John Massie.

Aug 30, 2019•38 min•Season 1Ep. 1

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