ABSTRACT
There is a problematic assumption at work in society that sees parental authority as a liberty right. Simultaneously, there is little agreement on what should be thought of as the good of childhood in a free society. These underlying factors lead to intractable disagreements about the nature and limits of parental authority, childhood interests, and the role of society in raising children.
This chapter provides an illustration of these problems by reviewing some developments in the ethical and legal standards in medical decision-making for children. The idea is to provide an overview of the kinds of challenges we run into when parents, judges, and clinicians try to make decisions for children in the context of medical care.
The chapter offers a diagnosis of the difficulties that arise in medical decision-making for children: that there is something wrong with the baseline assumptions present in debates and discussions about decision-making for children. The source of the problem is twofold: (1) the assumption that parenting is a liberty right which is at odds with decision-making that prioritizes the good of the child and (2) the lack of an objective account of the good widely accepted in a liberal society.
