•  4
    Parents Don’t Know Best in the United Kingdom
    American Journal of Bioethics 24 (1): 103-106. 2024.
    The Case of Archie Battersbee in the United Kingdom (UK) is a tragic one: a 12-year-old otherwise healthy boy who suffered a cardiac arrest at home on April 7, 2022, and was subsequently diagnosed...
  •  9
    Against the Equality of Moral Spheres in Healthcare
    American Journal of Bioethics 23 (12): 23-25. 2023.
    In a recent paper, Doernberg and Truog identify that physicians must routinely navigate a set of distinct “moral spheres”—clinical care, research, population health and the market.1 While the conce...
  •  1
    Genetic Testing of Children: Who Should Consent?
    In Justine Burley & John Harris (eds.), A Companion to Genethics, Blackwell. 2004.
    The prelims comprise: Introduction: Informed Consent and the Doctor‐Patient Relationship The Role of Children in the Informed Consent Process Newborn Screening: Mandatory Screening versus Informed Consent Testing Young Children for Early‐onset Genetic Conditions Testing Children for Late‐onset Genetic Conditions Testing Children for Carrier Status Conclusion Acknowledgments.
  •  4
    Pediatric Intensivist and Pediatric Neurologist Perspectives and Practices on Death by Neurologic Criteria
    with Erin Talati Paquette, Ahmeneh Ghavam, and Leslie Mataya
    Journal of Clinical Ethics 32 (3): 195-205. 2021.
    Controversies surrounding the determination of death by neurologic criteria (DNC), also known as brain death, have become increasingly common over the last decade, occasionally leading to parental refusal of all or part of an evaluation or declaration of DNC. We performed a prospective, crosssectional study of pediatric neurologists and intensivists who participate in professional listservs to ascertain perspectives and practices concerning the evaluation of DNC, specifically on obtaining permis…Read more
  •  1
    In Further Defense of “Better than Best (Interest)”
    Journal of Clinical Ethics 30 (3): 232-239. 2019.
    In their thoughtful critiques of my article “Better than Best (Interest Standard) in Pediatric Decision Making,” my colleagues make clear that there is little consensus on what is (are) the appropriate guidance and intervention principles in pediatric decision making, and disagree about whether one principle can serve both functions. Hester proposes his own unitary principle, the reasonable interest standard, which, like the best interest standard from which it is derived, encourages parents to …Read more
  •  9
    Better than Best (Interest Standard) in Pediatric Decision Making
    Journal of Clinical Ethics 30 (3): 183-195. 2019.
    Healthcare decision making for children has adopted the best interest of the child standard, a principle originally employed by judges to adjudicate child placement in the case of parental death, divorce, or incompetence. Philosophers and medical ethicists have argued whether the best interest principle is a guidance principle (informing parents on how they should make healthcare decisions for their child), an intervention principle (deciding the limits of parental autonomy in healthcare decisio…Read more
  •  3
    In this issue of The Journal of Clinical Ethics, Professor Ruth Tallman argues that pediatricians ought to support adolescent football players in their athletic goals. She does not deny that doing so means “helping children hurt themselves”; rather she argues that this would be consistent with a shared decision-making model in which both the physician and the patient seek to promote the patient’s well-being in light of the patient’s own goals. I argue that this ignores the role of the parents, m…Read more
  •  4
    Abusive Head Trauma and Parental Participation in Pediatric Decision Making
    with Erin Talati Paquette
    Journal of Clinical Ethics 31 (2): 121-125. 2020.
    Decision making for children who suffer abusive head trauma invokes multiple ethical considerations. The degree to which parents are permitted to participate in decision making after the injury has occurred is controversial. In particular, in this issue of The Journal of Clinical Ethics, Grigorian and colleagues raise concerns about the potential for conflict of interest in end-of-life decision making if the parents are facing criminal charges that could be escalated if the child dies. There are…Read more
  •  4
    ""Why" doctor, if this were your child, what would you do?" deserves an answer
    Journal of Clinical Ethics 14 (1-2): 59-62. 2003.
  •  1
    Disclosing the Diagnosis of HIV in Pediatrics
    with Ram Yogev, Joel Frader, John Lantos, and Erin Flanagan-Klygis
    Journal of Clinical Ethics 12 (2): 150-157. 2001.
  •  9
    The Research Protection-Inclusion Dilemma in Pregnancy: Who is Being Protected? Who is Being Included?
    with Carl Terhune D'Angio
    American Journal of Bioethics 23 (6): 103-106. 2023.
    Pregnant people are often listed among groups that have been excluded from research on the basis of perceived vulnerability, to the detriment of the entire class. Lack of research among pregnant pe...
  •  37
    Background: The American Medical Association, the British Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association have guidelines that specifically discourage physicians from self-prescribing or prescribing to family members, but only the BMA addresses informal prescription requests between colleagues. Objective: To examine the practices of paediatric providers regarding self-prescribing, curbsiding colleagues, and prescribing and refusing to prescribe to friends and family. Methods: 1086 paedi…Read more
  •  8
    Privacy, Intimacy and Isolation
    Philosophical Books 34 (4): 234-235. 1993.
  •  3
    Moral Grounding for the Participation of Children as Organ Donors
    Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 21 (2): 251-257. 1993.
    More than 24,000 patients await organ transplants and the number is increasing yearly. Living donors are an important source of transplant organs. In this paper, I argue that we can morally justify allowing children to serve as donors. Yet, I also argue that their participation must be restricted in order to prevent their exploitation.The paper is divided into six sections. In the first section, I show why the traditional principles of personal autonomy and beneficence are not adequate morally t…Read more
  •  29
    Moral Grounding for the Participation of Children as Organ Donors
    Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 21 (2): 251-257. 1993.
    More than 24,000 patients await organ transplants and the number is increasing yearly. Living donors are an important source of transplant organs. In this paper, I argue that we can morally justify allowing children to serve as donors. Yet, I also argue that their participation must be restricted in order to prevent their exploitation.The paper is divided into six sections. In the first section, I show why the traditional principles of personal autonomy and beneficence are not adequate morally t…Read more
  •  9
    Justice for Children: The Child as Organ Donor
    Bioethics 8 (2): 105-126. 1994.
    I argue that parents ought to be allowed to authorize their child's participation as an organ donor for another family member. I introduce a model of decisionmaking for children in intimate families which I call Constrained Parental Autonomy. This model permits wide parental discretion which is constrained absolutely by a broadly defined principle of respect for persons. In general, parental authorization alone is sufficient but I argue that the respect for persons constraint prevents certain do…Read more
  •  9
    Coding the Dead: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation for Organ Preservation
    with Colin Eversmann, Ayush Shah, and Christos Lazaridis
    AJOB Empirical Bioethics 14 (3): 167-173. 2023.
    Background There is lack of consensus in the bioethics literature regarding the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for organ-preserving purposes. In this study, we assessed the perspectives of clinicians in critical care settings to better inform donor management policy and practice.Methods An online anonymous survey of members of the Society of Critical Care Medicine that presented various scenarios about CPR for organ preservation.Results The email was sent to 10,340 members. It was op…Read more
  •  11
    The Dead Donor Rule Does Require that the Donor is Dead
    American Journal of Bioethics 23 (2): 12-14. 2023.
    Emil Nielsen Busch and Marius Mjaaland (2023) ask whether controlled donation after circulatory death (cDCD) violates the dead donor rule (DDR). They begin their article with the claim, “The dead d...
  •  36
    Addressing the Ethical Challenges in Genetic Testing and Sequencing of Children
    with Ellen Wright Clayton, Laurence B. McCullough, Leslie G. Biesecker, Steven Joffe, Susan M. Wolf, and For the Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Group
    American Journal of Bioethics 14 (3): 3-9. 2014.
    American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) recently provided two recommendations about predictive genetic testing of children. The Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium's Pediatrics Working Group compared these recommendations, focusing on operational and ethical issues specific to decision making for children. Content analysis of the statements addresses two issues: (1) how these recommendations characterize and analyze locus of decision m…Read more
  •  7
    Clarifying the Blurry Boundaries between Research and Clinical Care
    with Forough Noohi
    American Journal of Bioethics 22 (10): 96-98. 2022.
    In the fast-evolving field of genomic medicine, genomic sequencing is still more commonly performed in research contexts. Large amounts of data are routinely generated in research, producing both p...
  •  1
    A festschrift in memory of Robert M. Veatch
    Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 43 (4): 177-178. 2022.
  •  10
    The philosopher as partner: an introduction to the scholarship of Robert M. Veatch
    Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 43 (4): 179-185. 2022.
    A diverse group of scholars reflect on the scholarship of Robert M. Veatch, the breadth of which is unmatched in modern day bioethics. Essays were written by both philosophers and clinician-philosophers, by contemporaries and mentees. They span the breadth of Bob’s work and include analyses of his ideas about death, dying and organ transplantation, human experimentation and research ethics, disability, equality and justice, the doctor-patient relationship, the history of bioethics, as well as hi…Read more
  •  20
    Black Women and Babies Matter
    with Bree L. Andrews
    American Journal of Bioethics 21 (2): 93-95. 2021.
    Black women and their babies matter. In this commentary, we explore the current challenges that Black women face when pregnant and what is needed to ensure an anti-racist approach to prenatal and p...
  •  22
    Attitudes of African-American parents about biobank participation and return of results for themselves and their children
    with Colin M. E. Halverson
    Journal of Medical Ethics 38 (9): 561-566. 2012.
    Introduction Biobank-based research is growing in importance. A major controversy exists about the return of aggregate and individual research results. Methods The authors used a mixed-method approach in order to study parents' attitudes towards the return of research results regarding themselves and their children. Participants attended four 2-h, deliberative-engagement sessions held on two consecutive Saturdays. Each session consisted of an educational presentation followed by focus-group disc…Read more
  •  9
    The Ethical Limits of Children's Participation in Clinical Research
    Hastings Center Report 50 (4): 12-13. 2020.
    This essay reflects on arguments by Paul Ramsey, in The Patient as Person: Explorations in Medical Ethics (1970) and elsewhere, that continue to challenge policy‐makers and those doing clinical and translational research involving children. Ramsey argued that parents cannot morally authorize their child's participation in research unless the research is designed to benefit the child. He acknowledged that abiding by this position could have adverse impacts on improving child health, and he conclu…Read more
  •  7
    Health Care Surrogacy Laws Do Not Adequately Address the Needs of Minors
    with Rupali Gandhi, Erin Talati Paquette, and Erin Flanagan
    Hastings Center Report 50 (2): 16-18. 2020.
    A couple and their five‐year‐old daughter are in a car accident. The parents are not expected to survive. The child is transported to a children's hospital, and urgent treatment decisions must be made. Whom should the attending physician approach to make decisions for the child? When such cases arise in, for example, the hospitals where we work, the social worker or chaplain is instructed to use the Illinois Health Care Surrogacy Act as a guidepost to identify a decision‐maker. But in our state …Read more
  •  16
    Prisoners as Living Donors: A Vulnerabilities Analysis
    with J. Richard Thistlethwaite
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 27 (1): 93-108. 2018.
  •  15
    Living Donation by Individuals with Life-Limiting Conditions
    with J. Richard Thistlethwaite
    Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 47 (1): 112-122. 2019.
    The traditional living donor was very healthy. However, as the supply-demand gap continues to expand, transplant programs have become more accepting of less healthy donors. This paper focuses on the other extreme, asking whether and when individuals who have life-limiting conditions should be considered for living organ donation. We discuss ethical issues raised by 1) donation by individuals with progressive severe debilitating disease for whom there is no ameliorative therapy; and 2) donation b…Read more
  • Children as Living Donors
    with J. Thistlethwaite
    In David Rodríguez-Arias, Aviva Goldberg & Rebecca Greenberg (eds.), Ethical Issues in Pediatric Organ Transplantation, Springer Verlag. 2016.
  •  25
    Respecting Choice in Definitions of Death
    Hastings Center Report 48 (S4): 53-55. 2018.
    The definition of death was clearer one hundred years ago than it is today. People were declared dead if diagnosed with permanent cessation of both cardio‐circulatory function and respiratory function. But the definition has been muddled by the development of new technologies and interventions—first by cardiopulmonary resuscitation and ventilators, which were introduced in the mid‐twentieth century, and now by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which creates the ability to keep oxygenated bloo…Read more