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The Ethical Grounds for the Best Interest of the Child

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2016

LYNNE BOWYER
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Abstract:

Managing a healthcare situation in accordance with the best interests of a child can be challenging for both parents and healthcare professionals. These challenges take different forms as the child grows and develops physically, emotionally, and cognitively. In this article I argue that a child’s best interests cannot be construed in terms of a narrow conception of human beings as isolated, self-contained biological organisms, in which “health” and “illness” are understood in terms of physiological function and dysfunction. Such an approach overlooks the wider context in which the child grows into and comes to dwell in the world, continually enacting her life within her community. The health of a child is intimately connected to the ways in which she is involved in the world, through active and rewarding engagement with significant others. That embeddedness implies that acting in her best interests calls for others to nurture and integrate her into a sustainable human community so that she is supported appropriately throughout all the contingencies and vagaries of life that impact on her health.

Keywords

child healthbest interest of childchild development
Type
Special Section: The Best Interests of a Child: Problematic Neuroethical Decisions
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 63 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

Notes

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