Legal Parenthood, Natural and Legal Rights, and the Best Interests of the Child

Main Street in Sarasota, Florida. A high-tech medical arts building rises from the east end, the county's historic three-story courthouse is two blocks to the west and sandwiched in between is the First Church of Christ, Scientist. A verse inscribed on the wall behind the pulpit of the church reads: “Divine Love Always Has Met and Always Will Meet Every Human Need.” This is the church where William and Christine Hermanson worshipped. It is just a few steps away from the courthouse where they were convicted of child abuse and third-degree murder for failing to provide conventional medical care for their seven-year-old daughter.This Article is about the intersection of “divine love” and “the best interests of the child.” It is about a pluralistic society where the dominant culture reveres medical science, but where a religious minority shuns and perhaps fears that same medical science. It is also about the struggle among different religious interests to define the legal rights of the citizenry.

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Compassion, ethics of care and legal rights

International Journal of Law in Context ◽

10.1017/s174455231700009x ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 158-171 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jonathan Herring

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Intimate Relationships ◽

Ethics Of Care ◽

The Self ◽

Best Interests ◽

Legal Rights ◽

Caring Relationships ◽

Legal Requirement ◽

Relational Analysis ◽

Appropriate Care

AbstractThis paper will explore the difficulties facing law in promoting compassion and responding to caring relationships. These include the difficulties in determining whether a person has demonstrated compassion and in enforcing any legal requirement for compassion. The paper will use the ethics-of-care literature to critique two key legal tools: human rights and the concept of best interests. These concepts are typically designed to promote individualistic abstract understandings of the self, which are problematic when used in the setting of intimate relationships. However, this paper will suggest that it might not be necessary to abandon the concepts of rights and best interests. They may be useful for setting the boundaries for a space in which appropriate care and compassion can be exercised. It will also be suggested that both rights and best interests are not immune from a relational analysis and might, with appropriate modification, be used to promote the exercise of compassionate relational care.

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Parental Access to Children's Raw Genomic Data in Canada: Legal Rights and Professional Responsibility

Frontiers in Genetics ◽

10.3389/fgene.2021.535340 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Michael J. S. Beauvais ◽

Adrian M. Thorogood ◽

Michael J. Szego ◽

Karine Sénécal ◽

M'an H. Zawati ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Personal Information ◽

Personal Data ◽

Genomic Data ◽

Public Institution ◽

Best Interests ◽

Legal Rights ◽

The European Union ◽

The Right ◽

Right Of Access

Children with rare and common diseases now undergo whole genome sequencing (WGS) in clinical and research contexts. Parents sometimes request access to their child's raw genomic data, to pursue their own analyses or for onward sharing with health professionals and researchers. These requests raise legal, ethical, and practical issues for professionals and parents alike. The advent of widespread WGS in pediatrics occurs in a context where privacy and data protection law remains focused on giving individuals control-oriented rights with respect to their personal information. Acting in their child's stead and in their best interests, parents are generally the ones who will be exercising these informational rights on behalf of the child. In this paper, we map the contours of parental authority to access their child's raw genomic data. We consider three use cases: hospital-based researchers, healthcare professionals acting in a clinical-diagnostic capacity, and “pure” academic researchers at a public institution. Our research seeks to answer two principal questions: Do parents have a right of access to their child's raw WGS data? If so, what are the limits of this right? Primarily focused on the laws of Ontario, Canada's most populous province, with a secondary focus on Canada's three other most populous provinces (Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta) and the European Union, our principal findings include (1) parents have a general right of access to information about their children, but that the access right is more capacious in the clinical context than in the research context; (2) the right of access extends to personal data in raw form; (3) a consideration of the best interests of the child may materially limit the legal rights of parents to access data about their child; (4) the ability to exercise rights of access are transferred from parents to children when they gain decision-making capacity in both the clinical and research contexts, but with more nuance in the former. With these findings in mind, we argue that professional guidelines, which are concerned with obligations to interpret and return results, may assist in furthering a child's best interests in the context of legal access rights. We conclude by crafting recommendations for healthcare professionals in the clinical and research contexts when faced with a parental request for a child's raw genomic data.

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MORE UNWED FATHERS PUSH FOR EQUAL SAY IN ADOPTIONS

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.84.4.a84 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 84 (4) ◽

pp. A84-A84

Keyword(s):

Census Bureau ◽

Best Interests ◽

Legal Rights ◽

Parental Rights ◽

Unwed Mothers ◽

Unwed Mother ◽

The Past ◽

The Supreme Court ◽

Unwed Fathers ◽

The Right

As society's attitudes change toward non-marital relationships, more unwed fathers are coming forward and fighting to block the adoption of their children. In the past year alone there have been more than a dozen such suits. The outcome of these cases could have a wide impact: More than 800,000 illegitimate children were born last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The number is growing by as much as 50,000 annually, says a bureau spokesman. Until the early 1970's, unwed fathers had no legal rights to their children. . . Then the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional not to notify fathers of proceedings to terminate their parental rights. The ruling also gave unwed fathers the right to argue at such proceedings that it was in the best interests of the children to remain with them. Nonetheless, unwed fathers still do not enjoy the same legal protections as unwed mothers, family-law experts agree. An unwed mother can block an adoption by simply withholding consent. The rights of unwed fathers, on the other hand, are governed by laws that vary from state to state. In many states, an unwed father is permitted to deny consent to an adoption only if he openly declares himself the father, offers financial support for the child, and has lived with the child or its mother for a designated period of time. . .

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The Interest Theory, Children’s Rights and Social Authorities

The International Journal of Children s Rights ◽

10.1163/15718182-02304002 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 752-768

Author(s):

Lars-Göran Sund ◽

Marie Vackermo

Keyword(s):

Explanatory Power ◽

Children's Rights ◽

Children’S Rights ◽

Best Interests ◽

Legal Rights ◽

Interest Theory ◽

Child Art ◽

Rights Of The Child ◽

Long Run ◽

Analytical Tools

The principle of ‘the best interests of the child’ (art. 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child) is sometimes put forward as being the leading guide, i.e. it will in the long run – via, e.g. court cases and legal writing – give accurate and detailed information on the scope of children’s rights and the responsibilities of, e.g., parents. We claim that this principle does not provide us with the necessary analytical tools to enhance the legal rights of children. To this end it is more efficient to accept the explanatory power and apply the elements of the Interest theory, i.e. the chain of children’s interests and rights, obligations of e.g. parents and sanctions against failures. In this context we also illustrate that rights can have different strengths by briefly examining the role of social authorities in relation to the rights of children.

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End-of-life Decisions for Patients with Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness in England and Wales: Time for Neuroscience-informed Improvements

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics ◽

10.1017/s0963180120000584 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 73-89

Author(s):

PAUL CATLEY ◽

STEPHANIE PYWELL ◽

ADAM TANNER

Keyword(s):

Disorders Of Consciousness ◽

Best Interests ◽

Legal Rights ◽

Persons With Disabilities ◽

End Of Life Decisions ◽

England And Wales ◽

Mental Capacity Act 2005 ◽

Life Sustaining Treatment ◽

The Law ◽

Mental Capacity Act

AbstractThis article explores how the law of England and Wales1 has responded thus far to medical and clinical advances that have enabled patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness to survive. The authors argue that, although the courts have taken account of much of the science, they are now lagging behind, with the result that some patients are being denied their legal rights under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The article further argues that English law does not comply with the United Kingdom’s commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Stressing the need for the law to keep in step with advances in science, the article concludes with robust recommendations for improvements, based on the latest research in neuroscience, to the way in which life-sustaining treatment decisions are made. This would mean that the wishes of patients, including those with covert awareness, can be better reflected in best interests assessments.

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