Claudia Wiesemann

It has been a long tradition to quote from Joseph Dietl's 'manifesto' of therapeutic nihilism from 1845 to illustrate the perils of medical extremism. But Dietl's claim for medicine as a natural science cannot fully be understood without considering the social and political circumstances the developing New Vienna School had to face. The professionalization of Viennese academic medicine was opposed by the forces of restaurative absolutism and, in particular, the traditional preponderance of medical practitioners who played a major role in the medical faculty

Off-label drug use in paediatrics is associated with an increased risk of adverse drug reactions. Any risk-benefit analysis has to be based on value judgments that should include parents' views. However, nothing is known so far about the parents' perspective on this critical issue. Therefore, a quantitative survey with parents of healthy and chronically ill children was carried out (n=94). Knowledge about the practice of off-label use is generally poor in both groups. Surprisingly, this is also true for the parents of children with chronic disease. 9.3% of the parents of chronically ill children and 19.6% of the parents of healthy children would refuse treatment with an off-label drug. Parents who have poor knowledge about the practice of off-label use tend to refuse to volunteer their child for study participation. Therefore, the information of parents on the off-label use of drugs is important to meet ethical standards and to increase the parents’ acceptance of medical studies with children.

Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Existenz von Menschen als geborene Wesen. Das Eltern-Kind-Verhältnis und in einem weiteren Schritt auch die Familie werden daraufhin untersucht, inwiefern sie ihre moralische Bedeutung aus der besonderen Situation des Kindes beziehen. Diese besondere Situation des Kindes ist gekennzeichnet durch das Faktum der ‚Natalität‘, d. h. durch ein radikales Vorherbestimmt-Sein und eine radikale Abhängigkeit der kindlichen Existenz. Vom Faktum der Natalität geht ein moralischer Appell aus, auf den die Eltern mit dem Versprechen antworten, das in sie gesetzte Vertrauen nicht zu enttäuschen.