Childness and the Myth of the Unfinished Human - End of Life Medical Ethics in Children

This book offers a radical reassessment of the value of a child; one that does not rely on reference to her value to adults, or to her resemblance to adults, or even to her potential to become an adult in the future. Children are dependent on adults to speak for them. The main thesis of this book is that, when it comes to moral reasoning, that dependence can leave children vulnerable, because adults assume that the best way to exist is as an adult. Ethical theories accordingly typically privilege capacities that are normal for adults, but do not characterise the normal child. Or they might reference the value a child has to the adults around her, rather than explaining a child s value in her own terms. Bioethics is, on the whole, unapologetically adult-normative.
 
The author argues that such ethical theories do not serve children well. Drawing on neuroscience, philosophy and his own experience as a paediatrician specialising in the care of dying children, Dr. Hain sets out a way of explaining a child s value that references instead the real-world nature of the child.  He then considers how current medical ethics might look without adult-normative distortion.
 
This book is aimed at ethicists and moral philosophers or theologians, as well as medical and law students with an interest in medical ethics in children. It will also interest doctors and nurses working with children in disciplines such as palliative care, intensive care, psychiatry, and those working alongside clinical teams in bioethics and chaplaincy.
 

List of contents

Introduction.- Valuing children the ambivalence of adults.- Childness and the myth of the incomplete person.- Adult-normativity: an unreliable measure.- Childness in Principlism.- Childness in Consequentialism.- What actually matters.- Solvitur ambulando: Turning to the evidence.- Changing the orbit.- The cognitively impaired child.- Closing comments.

About the author

Since 2000, Dr. Richard Hain has been clinical lead for paediatric palliative medicine in Wales, leading a country-wide network comprising a wide range of professionals caring for children dying from malignant and non-malignant life limiting conditions.
 
He graduated in medicine in 1986 from Guy's Hospital (now part of King's College London) and in 1999 became triply certified in paediatrics, paediatric oncology and adult palliative medicine. He holds doctorates in opioid pharmacology from King's College London, and moral theology from the University of Oxford. In 2000 he was appointed in Wales as a Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics. In 2009, he led a successful submission to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to offer specialist certification in Paediatric Palliative Medicine and became the first chair of its Specialist Advisory Committee.  For some years he chaired the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board Clinical Ethics Committee, and he now Chairs the Individual Patient Funding Review Panel.  
 
Alongside his continuing work as a clinician in paediatric palliative medicine, Professor Hain has developed a research interest is bioethics, especially as it relates to children at the end of life. He has authored around 150 research papers, reviews and book chapters.  He has edited three editions of the award-winning Oxford Textbook of Palliative Care in Children and is co-author of the Oxford Handbook of Paediatric Palliative Medicine. He is Honorary Professor in Clinical Ethics in the Faculty of Medicine at Swansea University and Visiting Professor at the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care at University of South Wales. He has taught ethics to students of diverse disciplines including medicine, law, philosophy and theology.
 
Dr. Hain has received a number of awards including the Maruzza Foundation's Vittorio Ventafridda award in Palliative Medicine and Kidney Wales' Salaman/Morgan Ethics Travel Fellowship.
 
Alongside his continuing work as a clinician in paediatric palliative medicine, Professor Hain has developed a research interest is bioethics, especially as it relates to children at the end of life. He has authored around 150 research papers, reviews and book chapters.  He has edited three editions of the award-winning Oxford Textbook of Palliative Care in Children and is co-author of the Oxford Handbook of Paediatric Palliative Medicine. He is Honorary Professor in Clinical Ethics in the Faculty of Medicine at Swansea University and Visiting Professor at the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care at University of South Wales. He has taught ethics to students of diverse disciplines including medicine, law, philosophy and theology.
 
Dr. Hain has received a number of awards including the Maruzza Foundation's Vittorio Ventafridda award in Palliative Medicine and Kidney Wales' Salaman/Morgan Ethics Travel Fellowship.

Summary

This book offers a radical reassessment of the value of a child; one that does not rely on reference to her value to adults, or to her resemblance to adults, or even to her potential to become an adult in the future. Children are dependent on adults to speak for them. The main thesis of this book is that, when it comes to moral reasoning, that dependence can leave children vulnerable, because adults assume that the best way to exist is as an adult. Ethical theories accordingly typically privilege capacities that are normal for adults, but do not characterise the normal child. Or they might reference the value a child has to the adults around her, rather than explaining a child’s value in her own terms. Bioethics is, on the whole, unapologetically adult-normative.
The author argues that such ethical theories do not serve children well. Drawing on neuroscience, philosophy and his own experience as a paediatrician specialising in the care of dying children, Dr. Hain sets out a way of explaining a child’s value that references instead the real-world nature of the child.  He then considers how current medical ethics might look without adult-normative distortion.
This book is aimed at ethicists and moral philosophers or theologians, as well as medical and law students with an interest in ethics in children. It will also interest doctors and nurses working with children in disciplines such as palliative care, intensive care, psychiatry, and those working alongside clinical teams in bioethics and chaplaincy.

Product details

• Authors: Richard Hain
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 18.04.2026
• EAN: 9783032121103
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3212110-3
• No. of pages: 180
• Illustrations: II, 180 p.
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > Clinical medicine; Bioethik, Pädiatrie, palliative care, Pediatrics, Bioethics, Paediatric hospice and palliative care, Withholding and withdrawal of treatment in children, Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in children, Ethics in children at the end of life, Paediatric bioethics