Medical Decision-Making on Behalf of Children in English and Welsh Law: A Child-Centred Best Interests Approach

Goold, Imogen; Auckland, Cressida; Herring, Jonathan

doi:10.5040/9781509928590.ch-011

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Information is verbal not non-verbal. Control over decisions must be held by adults and denied to children in their best interests (Goold et al, 2019;Bridgeman, 2021). 'Perhaps the most provocative and surprising finding of our review was that interventions [about decisions] rarely targeted patients (i.e., children) but focused mainly on parents' (Wyatt et al, 2015:577).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Yet if children are seen as too immature and dependent to be autonomous, they lose binding legal rights, although these exist in international guiding law: to be informed and involved in decisionmaking and to be protected from (what some may feel is) 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment' (UN, 1989, Articles 12, 13, 37). • Doing good is often taken to mean defending the child's best interests (UN, 1989, Article 3), as defined by adults, not by the child (Goold et al, 2019). • Do no harm may then be interpreted as avoiding neglect or omissions that could follow if a child's refusal of clinical interventions is respected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Children’s understanding and consent to heart surgery: Multidisciplinary teamwork and moral experiences

Alderson

Bellsham‐Revell

Dedieu

et al. 2022

J Child Health Care

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mainstream law and ethics literature on consent to children’s surgery contrasts with moral experiences of children and adults observed in two heart surgery centres. Research interviews were conducted with 45 practitioners and related experts, and with 16 families of children aged 6 to 15, admitted for non-urgent surgery, as well as an online survey. Thematic data analysis was informed by critical realism and childhood studies. Impersonal adult-centric mainstream literature assumes young children cannot consent. It is based on dichotomies: adult/child, competent/incompetent, respect or protect children, inform or distract them, use time swiftly or flexibly, verbal/non-verbal communication, respect or control children and reason/emotion. Through their moral experiences, adults and children resolve these seeming dichotomies. Through understanding young children’s reasoning and emotions about complex distressing decisions related to heart surgery, adults share knowledge, control, trust and respect with them. They see children’s consent or refusal before non-urgent surgery as a shared personal moral experience within the child’s life course, beyond mere legal compliance. Adults help children to understand and ‘want’ the surgery that offers things they value: better health or to ‘be more like their friends’. If children are not convinced, sometimes surgery is postponed or occasionally cancelled.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%