Jan Crosthwaite

When parents refuse consent to treatment for children and young persons.

Abstract:  One of the most difficult ethical dilemmas in paediatric practice is parental refusal to consent to life‐saving treatment for their children. The ethical principles in such situations are complex. Although the ‘best interests’ of the child are of primary concern, these must be understood widely, as including all and not just medical interests. Though ultimately the courts must decide on a course of action where refusal is continued, we believe that in non‐emergency cases consultation with a properly constituted multidisciplinary group will be of assistance. A national group of this kind has been recommended for New Zealand. This will ensure that all aspects of the cases are considered and can lessen the sense of ‘parent versus medical profession’ opposition. If this does not lead to a resolution, the opinion of the courts may be of assistance. Following a brief discussion of important ethical considerations, this article outlines a suggested constitution for an advisory committee and a set of guidelines for clinicians faced with parental refusal of treatment for their children.

Teaching Ethics and Technology – What is Required?

It is increasingly demanded that science andtechnology courses include an ethics component -teaching which will help students to address ethicalissues. Discussion of ethical issues can also providea way of drawing non-science students into engagementwith science and technology. But teaching ethics inthis context presents special problems.To engage with the issues of concern, students need areasonable level of understanding of the science orthe technology which raises these. They also need anunderstanding of ethics if their engagement is toextend beyond “opinion sharing”. This is the moredifficult issue. How much understanding of ethics, andof what kind, is needed to enable useful engagementwith practical issues? Answering this requires a cleargrasp of the objectives of teaching ethics oftechnology in the various contexts in which it isadvocated.In this paper I discuss these questions in the contextof my own teaching at University level in the area ofethical issues in biotechnology.

The definition of sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: (1) submission to such conduct is made a term or condition of employment or participating in educational programs; or (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for employment or academic decisions affecting the individual; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an employees work performance or students academic performance creating an intimidating , hostile, or offensive working or learning environment.