Ethical Dilemma

The first question that we are to consider asks us to address many of the actual issues that come up in the course of medical decisions, and not simply in terms of cancer treatment. It is often the case that parents and children will not agree over a proposed treatment for the child; the ethical conflicts that can follow such a disagreement can be extremely traumatic. This is especially problematic for the family given that they are already suffering through the trauma of health problems, often terribly serious ones.

In the case study with which we are presented we lack certain key pieces of information that we would have in a real-world case and that are in fact necessary for us to have in order to make a finely balanced ethical decision (Brody, 1988, pp. 36-8). The first of these is the age of the child. A child...
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