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The ethical rights of the child patient
Insights
Children, especially those with cancer, possess the right to be treated as persons. This perspective is crucial for ethical healthcare, even amidst debates on children
Area of Science:
- Bioethics
- Pediatric Healthcare Ethics
Background:
- The language of patient rights is often inadequate for complex healthcare ethics.
- Societal discomfort exists regarding the concept of children's rights.
- The parent-child relationship is traditionally viewed through parental duties and child needs.
Observation:
- Adults often struggle with the notion of children's rights, deeming it nonsensical or inappropriate within families.
- Existing ethical frameworks for children focus on parental obligations and needs, not inherent rights.
- Healthcare settings present unique challenges for recognizing children as rights-bearing individuals.
Findings:
- The abstract argues for viewing infants and children as right-bearing individuals in healthcare.
- It posits that children have a fundamental "right to be treated as a person."
- This right is essential for ethical engagement with pediatric patients, irrespective of parental rights debates.
Implications:
- Granting children the "right to be treated as a person" has significant consequences for their healthcare.
- This ethical stance necessitates a re-evaluation of how pediatric patients, particularly those with malignant diseases, are perceived and treated.
- It calls for a shift towards recognizing the inherent dignity and personhood of all child patients.
Abstract:
It is difficult, if not impossible, to adequately address the complex ethical dimensions of health care using the language of patients' rights. However, talk about rights has become such a popular way to express our ethical beliefs that it is important that we at least address questions like what are the ethical rights of cancer patients. A special problem arises when the patient involved is an infant or small child. Many adult members of our society are uncomfortable with the idea of children's rights. In fact, many analysts have argued that talk of such rights is nonsense. Within the context of the intimate, shared existence of the family, talk of children's rights may seem unnecessary or even inappropriate. The parent-child relationship has historically been defined ethically in terms of parental duties/obligations and children's needs. The author will argue that, regardless of how one resolves the debate about the rights of infants and children vis-a-vis their parents, it is essential in our present society that infants and children as patients in the health care context of in a variety of relationships outside the family be seen and responded to as right-bearing persons like ourselves. The author will argue that infants and small children in the health care context have the "right to be treated as a person" and sketch some of the consequences of granting this right to children undergoing treatment for malignant disease.