Is It Bioethical? Testing Kids For Adult-Onset Conditions

Should a child be able to grow up unhindered by the knowledge that later in life he or she will suffer from a serious illness?

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Source: KCUR

Pediatric Bioethics Debate Series Webinars: The Bioethics Center at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics develops tools for clinicians and teachers to help analyze ethical issues that arise in pediatrics.

April 5, 2013
Should Parents be Permitted to Test Their Children for Adult-Onset Conditions?

For many years, it has been a central principle of pediatric bioethics that children should not be tested for adult-onset conditions. Prohibiting such testing, it is argued, allows children to have an "open future," protects them from the harm of being treated differently on the basis of their future health status, and respects their future autonomy by preserving for them the right to make a decision for themselves about what they want to know or not know. Others, however, argue that knowledge is better than ignorance, that each child and each family is different, and that parents should have the right to make decisions about such matters for their children and their families.

On Friday, April 5, geneticist and bioethicist Kelly Ormond and philosopher Rosamond Rhodes will discuss this controversial topic. Professor Ormond is an Associate Professor and Director of the Masters Program in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling at Stanford University. Professor Rhodes is Director of Bioethics Education, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Professor of Philosophy at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is also an Associate Director of the Union-Mount Sinai Bioethics Program .

This will be broadcast live as a free Webinar.

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