A growing number of bioethics papers endorse the harm threshold when judging whether to
override parental decisions. Among other claims, these papers argue that the harm …

In an earlier paper entitled Harm is all you need?, I used an analysis of English law to claim
that the harm threshold was an unsuitable mediator of the best interests test when deciding if …

How should we make decisions about medical treatment for a very young child? What
should we do when there is a disagreement between parents and clinicians about what …

The best interest standard is the threshold most frequently employed by physicians and
ethics consultants in challenging a parent's refusal to provide consent for a child's medical …

Dealing with situations where parents' views about treatment for their child are strongly
opposed to doctors' views is one major area of ethical challenge in paediatric health care …

Minors are generally considered incompetent to provide legally binding decisions regarding
their health care, and parents or guardians are empowered to make those decisions on their …

This article critically examines, and ultimately rejects, the best interest standard as the
predominant, go-to ethical and legal standard of decision making for children. After an …

While the best interest standard (BIS) enjoys wide endorsement as the ethical and decision-
making standard in pediatrics, it has been criticized as vague and indeterminate. Alternate …

For many years the prevailing paradigm for medical decision making for children has been
the best interest standard. Recently, some authors have proposed that Mill's “harm principle” …

This paper reviews the ethical literature on conflicts between health professionals and
parents about medical decision-making for children. We present the results of a systematic …