Medical Decision-Making on Behalf of Young Children: A Comparative Perspective

Description

In the wake of the Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans cases, a wide-ranging international conversation was started regarding alternative thresholds for intervention and the different balances that can be made in weighing up the rights and interests of the child, the parent's rights and responsibilities and the role of medical professionals and the courts. This collection provides a comparative perspective on these issues by bringing together analysis from a range of jurisdictions across Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia. Contextualising the differences and similarities, and drawing out the cultural and social values that inform the approach in different countries, this volume is highly valuable to scholars across jurisdictions, not only to inform their own local debate on how best to navigate such cases, but also to foster inter-jurisdictional debate on the issues. The book brings together commentators from the fields of law, medical ethics, and clinical medicine across the world, actively drawing on the view from the clinic as well as philosophical, legal and sociological perspectives on the crucial question of who should decide about the fate of a child suffering from a serious illness. In doing so, the collection offers comprehensive treatment of the key questions around whether the current best interests approach is still appropriate, and if not, what the alternatives are. It engages head-on with the concerns seen in both the academic and popular literature that there is a need to reconsider the orthodoxy in this area.

Imogen Goold is Associate Professor and Jonathan Herring is Professor, both at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. Cressida Auckland is Assistant Professor in the Department of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

I urge anyone who is interested in medical law and ethics to read this book. The way in which the law is presented and analysed through different jurisdictional vistas is a tour de force. You will not be disappointed ... This book has provided us with a window seat to the evolving medico-legal and familial drama that applies to these sad and emotionally challenging multijurisdictional cases. -- Clayton O Neill, Queen's University Belfast * Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly * What is particularly helpful about this book is that it is not simply an edited collection of contributions around a theme, but rather is a collection showing strong editorial control. This manifests itself in the very useful concluding chapter by Imogen Goold and Cressida Auckland reflecting on the themes that can be drawn from the comparisons ... this is both a fascinating and impressive work. -- Alex Ruck Keene * Mental Capacity Law and Policy Blog * A much needed, calm and considered reflection upon an ongoing challenge faced by all societies privileged enough to have access to advanced medical technology: the question of when to refrain from using it ... in contrast to much of the scholarly writing in this area, this study incorporates the real world perspective from the clinic and does not confine itself to rarefied discussions of abstract principles ... The scholarship of both the editorial team and contributing authors is of worldleading quality, and the volume is highly recommended, both to specialist legal readers, and to those with a general interest in examining the complex and sensitive issues in this area. -- Javier Oliva * Law & Justice - The Christian Law Review *