Crack the Case: Conundrums in Pediatric Ethics

As all pediatricians know, children are not just "little adults" and this is especially true in the field of ethics. In matters from consenting to surgery to deciding end-of-life wishes, adults are assumed to have decisional capacity until proven otherwise. Adults have the benefit of years of developmental maturation and experiences that have shaped a unique set of preferences and underlying values. Children, on the other hand, pose a more complex picture. Given their wide range of cognitive abilities (from neonates in the NICU to frontal lobe deficient teenagers), decisional incapacity is the default and deciding "best interest" is often in the hands of mom and dad. This presents obvious conflicts in many situations: from refusing vaccines to reckoning with an adolescent who has decided they're done with chemotherapy and its side effects. Join this conversation with our Kid Expert, Ian Wolfe, PhD RN, as we explore some tough cases in the world of pediatric ethics.
View the transcript here:
https://www.childrensmn.org/for-health-professionals/talking-pediatrics-podcast/talking-pediatrics-crack-case-conundrums-pediatric-ethics-1-13-23/