Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Introduction
- 14 Ethical dilemmas in the care of pregnant women: rethinking “maternal–fetal conflicts”
- 15 Prenatal testing and newborn screening
- 16 Assisted reproduction
- 17 Respectful involvement of children in medical decision making
- 18 Non-therapeutic pediatric interventions
- 19 Child abuse and neglect
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
18 - Non-therapeutic pediatric interventions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Introduction
- 14 Ethical dilemmas in the care of pregnant women: rethinking “maternal–fetal conflicts”
- 15 Prenatal testing and newborn screening
- 16 Assisted reproduction
- 17 Respectful involvement of children in medical decision making
- 18 Non-therapeutic pediatric interventions
- 19 Child abuse and neglect
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
Summary
A five-year-old boy who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia was originally treated with combination chemotherapy and achieved remission. Within several months his disease relapsed. His doctors have determined that allogenic bone marrow transplantation offers the greatest chance of a sustained remission. His one-year-old sister is the best match. Their mother has agreed to the sister being a donor, but their father has reservations about putting her through the procedure and suggests that his wife, although not quite as good a match, should be the donor.
What are non-therapeutic pediatric interventions?
Non-therapeutic pediatric interventions, such as harvesting a child's bone marrow, are medical interventions that are not intended to benefit medically the child upon whom they are performed. Therefore, where such interventions are proposed or undertaken, they have some other purpose. In the case opening this chapter, the purpose of harvesting J's bone marrow is to save the life of I.
The word “therapeutic” can be understood in broader and narrower ways. In the narrower sense, it excludes prophylactic interventions – namely those that are not intended to cure some condition the child currently has but to prevent an adverse medical condition later. Because prophylactic interventions are morally similar (even if not identical) to narrowly therapeutic ones, I shall group these together and thus use “therapeutic” in the broader sense that includes prophylactic measures. Non-therapeutic interventions are then those that neither cure nor prevent disease or impairment in those on whom they are performed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics , pp. 127 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
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