Medical ethics in times of conflict - why silence is not an option.

In this commentary we argue that medical ethics has a key role in discussing the effects of conflicts and other violent human rights abuses. Contemporary medical ethics is an emerging academic discipline without clearly defined boundaries and we have no desire to impose them. We are seeking instead to indicate the kinds of issues that naturally and ordinarily arise within its purview. Recent history has seen a closer relationship and interdependency between medicine and the state. This has led, at times, to tension between professional obligations and state interests. Many would prefer medical ethics to step aside from sectarian politics and focus on the doctor-patient relationship and the objective and neutral medical sciences that underpin it. However, given the role that social inequities play in health outcomes, doctors have been obliged to speak out against such inequities or even against state practices which directly contribute to poor health. For those committed to the impartial practice of medicine, and to the promotion of human wellbeing, silence during times of conflict is seldom an option.

Should childhood MMR vaccination be compulsory? Rights, duties and the public interest.

When children and young people lack the capacity to make decisions about their care and treatment, decisions have to be made on their behalf based on an assessment of their welfare or interests. In law, parents, or others with the relevant parental responsibility, are ordinarily regarded as the appropriate decision-makers. One way of framing this is to say that parents have certain decision-making rights with respect to their children. Such rights, however, are not generally regarded as absolute, rather they can be seen as secondary to and limited by the duties that parents have with regard to their children, duties to promote their welfare. It is against these parental duties that children could, at least in theory if not in practice, claim a right to certain kinds of protection. The legal rights of parents here, as opposed to the rights of the children, can be thought of as rights that secure for parents the freedom from interference necessary to fulfill the underlying duty.