Wednesday 1st to Friday 3rd September 'Deciding with Children'

Registration open

Keynote plenary sessions

Day 1: Wednesday 1st September 12:30pm - 1:30pm  Conference opening (Grand Rounds) Deciding with Children International Keynote Presenter, Professor Douglas Diekema Physician and Director of education for the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Childrens Hospital and professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, USA				5:00pm - 6:30pm Hypothetical When teenagers think they know best! Facilitated by Professor Lynn Gillam, Clinical Ethicist & Academic Director, Children’s Bioethics Centre, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne
Day 2: Thursday 2nd September 12:30pm - 2:00pm Getting over Gillick Moderated discussion facilitated by Professor Lynn Gillam, Clinical Ethicist & Academic Director, Children’s Bioethics Centre, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne Speakers include: Dr Sarah Martin, A/Prof Helen Irving &  Dr Erin Sharwood Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane				7:00pm - 8:30pm Hearing from young people: reflections on health care decision-making Young people panel moderated by Professor John Massie, Paediatric Respiratory Physician & Clinical Director, Children’s Bioethics Centre, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne
Day 3: Friday 3rd September 8:30am-10:00am Keynote plenary When parents exclude the adolescent in decision-making  International Keynote presenter Professor Lainie Ross, Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Professor of Clinical Ethics, Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Co-Director of the Institute of Translational Medicine, and Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine, Surgery and the College, University of Chicago, Academic Pediatrician, University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, University of Chicago, USA And Professor Douglas S. Diekema (see above)				12:30pm-2:00pm Keynote plenary Deciding with Children: bringing it all together Professor Clare Delany, Clinical Ethicist, Children’s Bioethics Centre, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne Professors Lynn Gillam and John Massie (see above)

Click here for 2021 Program

Children have traditionally been seen as having no active role in decision-making about their health care (at least until the point where they become mature minors, apparently able to make all decisions for themselves). On this view, clinicians and parents have the ethical responsibility of deciding for children, and then securing the child’s co-operation with whatever decision has been made. More recently, this understanding has been challenged by increasing recognition of the ethical importance of respect for the child, and promotion of the child’s voice. The focus is shifting to deciding with children.

In this conference, we unpack and reflect on the idea of deciding with children. Is this really the ethically best approach? Could it have downsides - can decision-making really be shared with children without compromising their interests?  Then there is the practical question of what deciding with children actually amounts to in practice. Is it any different from current best practice in paediatrics? What ethical responsibilities would clinicians have? And what role would parents have? If all children should be involved in some way in decision-making about their care, we need to consider what this means for the idea of “Gillick-competent” mature minors – perhaps this is not a useful or meaningful category.

Topic areas will include:

• When children want something different to the parents or clinicians – how much weight to give to the child’s view?
• Do parents have any place in decision-making with older adolescents?
• Promoting the child’s voice – do clinicians have responsibility to actively encourage this? What if parents do not agree with the idea of children having a voice in their health care?
• Some children might not want to be involved in discussions and decision-making - how should we respond to them?
• What about the child who doesn’t express a view?
  

International Keynote Speaker - Wednesday 1 September 12:30pm-1:30pm

Douglas S. Diekema, MD, MPH 

Dr. Diekema is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine with adjunct appointments in the Departments of Bioethics & Humanities and Internal Medicine in the School of Medicine and the Department of Health Services in the School of Public Health.  He is also an attending physician in the emergency department at Seattle Children’s Hospital and serves as Director of Education for the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. He has been a member of the Seattle Children’s Hospital ethics committee since 1991, served as an ethics consultant for 26 years, has been chairperson of the institutional review board since 2000, and founded the Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children’s in 2004. He is past-Chair of the Committee on Bioethics of the American Academy of Pediatrics and currently serves as an elected Board member for the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities and as Chair of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee for Human Subjects Protections (SACHRP) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Diekema the author of numerous scholarly publications in medical ethics and pediatric emergency medicine and an editor of Clinical Ethics in Pediatrics: A Case-based Textbook. He is an elected Fellow of the Hastings Center and was honored by the American Academy of Pediatrics as the 2014 recipient of the William G. Bartholome Award for Ethical Excellence.

Bioethics Consultation Service,   Emergency Medicine

International Keynote Speaker - Friday 3 September 8:30am-10:30am

Lainie Friedman Ross, MD, PhD, is the Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Professor of Clinical Medical Ethics; Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine, Surgery and the College; Co-Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine, and Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. 

Dr Ross’ research portfolio concentrates on ethical and policy issues in pediatrics, defining death and organ transplantation, genetics and genomics, and research ethics. She is especially interested in vulnerable populations and how to reduce health care disparities.  She has published five books and over 200 articles in the peer-reviewed literature and frequently lectures nationally and internationally.