ABSTRACT
When children are ill with a life-threatening condition, it is the norm for parents to be entitled to make decisions in relation to the treatment provided. However, when clinicians or child protection authorities form the view that the treatment wanted by parents is not in a child’s best interests they may apply to the courts for an order authorising coerced treatment or withdrawal of treatment. This chapter explores the issued of coerced treatment utilising the case example of Oshin Kiszko in Western Australia whose parents opposed his receiving the chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment recommended by clinicians to try to save his life. It examines the bases advanced for the decisions by the Family Court to compel certain forms of treatment and not to compel others. It reflects upon the limits of parental autonomy and the circumstances in which coercion of treatment for a very ill minor may not be in their best interests.
