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Shih-Ning Then
Children
as Tissue
Donors
Regulatory Protection, Medical Ethics,
and Practice
Children as Tissue Donors
Shih-Ning Then
123
Shih-Ning Then
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
For Mum and Dad.
Preface
This monograph is the result of research that began almost a decade ago. At that
time, I recall being surprised at how little had been written about children who act
as tissue donors. While the ethical concerns were relatively well articulated, little
consideration had been given to their situation in the legal or regulatory literature.
There was also very little known about how children who had acted as donors fared
in the short or long term. During the course of this research, it has been reassuring
to see more research, from the clinical domain, examining outcomes for donor
children and more professional bodies articulating guidelines or standards con-
cerned with donor children. While more work needs to be done, this demonstrates
an increasing concern for a cohort of children deserving of far more attention than
they have historically received.
This monograph seeks to add to this growing body of knowledge about donor
children. It does this by examining the existing ethical frameworks and providing
an original analysis of the legal and non-legal regulation of children’s participation
as donors across three Western countries. It combines these doctrinal and theo-
retical approaches with insights into clinical practice gained from the results of
qualitative research conducted with health professionals. It is hoped that clinicians,
families and donors, as well as hospital administrators, policy-makers and law
reformers will find this contribution to the literature to be useful in considering how
best to protect donor children’s interests and respect their rights.
There are many people who I wish to thank who have helped me during the life
of this research. To Emeritus Prof. Terry Carney, many thanks for being such a
great mentor. To Prof. Belinda Bennett, Prof. Judy Cashmore, Prof. Ben Mathews,
Assoc. Prof. Gabrielle Appleby and my colleagues at the Australian Centre for
Health Law Research at Queensland University of Technology, thank you for all
the feedback and support over the years.
Thank you to the participants who took part in my qualitative research. Their
perspectives are incredibly valuable in considering what more we can do for donor
children.
vii
viii Preface
Thank you to my parents-in-law, who have helped in so many ways to make this
possible. And to Leon, Theo and Harry, thank you for your ongoing support and
reminding me every day of the truly important things in life. I dedicate this book to
my parents, who have always fostered and supported my love of learning.
It is always challenging to keep up to date in an area where clinical practice is
developing and regulation is changing. However, I have endeavoured to state the
law as it stands as at 1 January 2018.
This book incorporates material that the author published in the following journal
articles:
Then, Shih-Ning. 2009. The Legality of Tissue Transplants for the Benefit of
Family Members in the UK and Australia: Implications for Saviour Siblings.
Medical Law International 10:23–64.
Then, Shih-Ning, and Gabrielle Appleby. 2010. Tissue Transplantation from
Children: Difficulties in Navigating State and Federal Systems. University of New
South Wales Law Journal 33:305–336.
Then, Shih-Ning. 2011. Young Children as Regenerative Tissue Donors:
Considering the Need for Legal Reform In Light of Divergent Ethical Approaches.
Journal of Law and Medicine 19:172–195.
Then, Shih-Ning. 2015. Pressure placed on paediatric haematopoietic stem cell
donors: Views from health professionals. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health
51 (12):1182–1187.
Then, Shih-Ning. 2017. Best Interests: The ‘Best’ Way For Courts to Decide if
Young Children Should Act As Bone Marrow Donors? Medical Law International
17 (1–2):3–42.
Then, Shih-Ning, Ian Kerridge, and Michael Marks. 2018. Children as
Allogeneic Haematopoietic Progenitor (Stem) Cell Donors: ethically challenging
and legally complex. Medical Journal of Australia 208 (8):334–337.
ix
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 1
Clinical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 2
The HSC Transplant Recipient . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 2
Children as HSC Donors: Interventions and Procedures . . . . . . . . . . 3
Risks and Outcomes for HSC Donors . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 5
Frameworks Informing This Monograph . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 7
The Relevance of Children’s Rights . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 8
Regulation and Its Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 12
Qualitative Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 13
Roadmap of the Monograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 14
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... . . . . . . . . . 15
2 The Ethics of Children Donating Tissue to Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Why the Ethical Unease? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Vulnerability of the Donor Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Influencing the Discussion: Major Ethical Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Ethics of Paternalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Interests Arising from Family and Intimate Relationships . . . . . . . . . 32
Utilitarian Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Recognising the Emerging Autonomy of the Donor Child . . . . . . . . . 44
The Special Role of Medical Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The Moral Responsibility of Medical Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3 Ethical Frameworks and Their Influence on Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Significance and ‘Status’ of a Child Acting as a Donor . . . . . . . . . 63
Clinical Narratives of Harm—Complexities and Uncertainties . . . . . . . . 66
The Potential for Physical Harm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The Potential for Psychological Harm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
xi
xii Contents
xv
Chapter 1
Introduction
Every year, thousands of children around the world donate tissue to a family member
in an attempt to cure or treat that other person. Children proposed as donors will
almost always act as haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) donors—sourced from bone
marrow or peripheral blood—and in rare cases may donate an organ such as a kidney.
The great good that can come about through their participation is at the cost of
donor children undergoing physically invasive and unnecessary medical procedures.
The non-therapeutic element of their involvement brings about questions of what is
ethically acceptable and how should children’s involvement be regulated?
A book focusing on the topic of child donors, in particular HSC donors, also seems
timely. With the increase in potential uses and indications for HSC transplant, more
children are likely to be asked to act as donors.1 Recent years have brought about
the emergence of what seems to be more concern for child donors, demonstrated by
a growing body of medical and ethical literature examining effects on children who
donate, and repeated calls for research to improve the paediatric donor experience.2
Mirroring this to some extent has been the growth in professional ethical guidelines
available to clinicians who deal with child donors.3
In light of this increasing focus on the clinical experience and outcomes for
child donors, this book considers another dimension—the regulatory frameworks
at play—as well as addressing ethical issues and examining the perspectives of clin-
icians regarding the role of such regulation. In doing so this book draws upon ethi-
cal discourse, legal and non-legal forms of regulation and the results of qualitative
research to provide a window into the complexities of the situation where a child is
asked to act as a HSC donor for the benefit of another.
1 Grilley (2016), 1.
2 See, for example, Bauk et al. (2013), Pentz et al. (2014), Pelletier et al. (2015), Switzer et al.
(2016).
3 See, for example, Committee on Bioethics (2010), Bitan et al. (2016), van Walraven et al. (2010).
Clinical Context
Before considering the relevant ethical and regulatory issues, it is necessary to briefly
outline the clinical context and current knowledge about paediatric HSC donors. It
should be noted that while there is some discussion of children acting as organ donors
in this book—and it is recognised that the risk profile for children acting as kidney
or liver lobe donors is considerably higher4 —the primary focus of this book is on
the more common situation of a child acting as a HSC donor.
In order for a child to be called upon to act as a tissue donor, their sick sibling
or (less commonly) another sick family member, may suffer from one of a range
of malignant or non-malignant diseases. These include lymphoblastic leukaemia,
myeloid leukaemias, myelodysplastic syndrome, multiple myeloma and severe aplas-
tic anaemia.5 Depending on the disease suffered, HSC transplant may be recom-
mended quickly following diagnosis, or only when other treatment has failed.
Healthy tissue-matched HSC is located in the bone marrow or peripheral blood
stem cells (PBSC) of the donor and provides the source of the potential cure for these
conditions. Healthy siblings are the most likely source of suitable tissue as they have
a 25% chance of immunologically compatibility—that is, being tissue-matched. It
is, however, possible to source matched tissue from elsewhere. Unrelated donations
of bone marrow or cord blood can be sourced from the international network of bone
marrow donor registries (which currently has over 31 million bone marrow donors
or cord blood units registered6 ), and haploidentical transplants are becoming more
prevalent.7 However, where a related donor is available, usually alternatives will not
be sought.8
How often will children be called upon to donate? More than one third of children
who receive a HSC transplant, will receive it from a sibling who is also a child.9
This equates to thousands of children acting as HSC donors globally on an annual
basis.10
The recipient will usually be a sibling of the donor, and will often also be a child.
In rare cases, the proposed recipient may be a parent, cousin or aunt or uncle. The
process of donation and how the recipient reacts to the transplant are relevant to the
psycho-social impact of donation on a child donor and is briefly described here.
A child donor can undergo a number of procedures in order to donate HSC for trans-
plantation. Children will have to undergo tests to determine if they are tissue matched
and if they are suitable to act as a donor. If compatible, they may undergo a bone
marrow harvest (with or without the administration of a growth factor to stimulate
cell production) to obtain the necessary volume of cells. Alternatively, and generally
less likely, is that children may undergo a process known as aphaeresis. Following
both these procedures, the cells taken from the child are naturally regenerated in the
body.
up studies of transplant recipients in these studies, ‘more morbidity and mortality from late effects
may be seen in the near future’.
4 1 Introduction
Child donors as a group, have not historically always been subject to processes that
safeguard their physical or psychological interests. Research has shown harvested
volumes of tissue often exceeded current recommended amounts; donors were often
not assessed or treated by independent medical professionals; and physical and psy-
chological follow up for donors has been poor.24 In recent years, increasing concern
over the interests and risks to child donors has manifested in more published research
devoted to this traditionally overlooked group of children. The majority of this work
has been led by clinicians and associated health care professionals and, while this
section does not purport to provide an in depth review of our existing knowledge
about child donors, reference is made to some of these studies.
In terms of known physical risks, the major risk associated with donation comes
with the need for children to undergo general anaesthetic. Complications of anaes-
thesia involve vomiting, sore throat, decreased blood pressure and abnormal heart
rate.25 However, other serious complications including nerve, bone or tissue injury
can occur.26
Infection at the site of the harvest can result and other common short-term effects
include fatigue, low back pain, headaches, nausea, difficulty walking, problems sleep-
ing and bleeding problems.27 Pain at the harvest site is usually experienced for a day,
although can last for up to five days in some children.28 Rarely, long-term chronic
pain at the harvest site has been reported. Some children may become anaemic and
in some cases a blood transfusion may be needed.29 Sometimes iron supplements
may be given to donor children.30 Usually children donating bone marrow will stay
in hospital for one day.
Children who undergo aphaeresis are also in danger of suffering from a range of
adverse physical outcomes. Where a general anaesthetic is needed to place a central
line, the same risks associated with undergoing a general anaesthetic (described
above) apply to those children. Complications can arise from the central venous
catheter and pain is often experienced at the site of the line.31 Some donors experience
low calcium levels (hypocalcemia) during aphaeresis. The main risks associated with
aphaeresis relate to the need to use G-CSF to increase the level of cells in the donor’s
body prior to the procedure.
Cell stimulating G-CSF is usually administered prior to aphaeresis to collect
PBSC and is sometimes used prior to bone marrow harvests where the donor is
much smaller than the recipient. The use of this is, however, associated with certain
32 Styczynski et al. (2012), 2939, Committee on Bioethics (2010), 394, Then et al. (2018), 334.
33 Committee on Bioethics (2010), 394.
34 Bendorf and Kerridge (2011), 616.
35 Committee on Bioethics (2010), 394.
36 Karakukcu and Unal (2015), 20.
37 Pentz (2006), Styczynski et al. (2012), 2941.
38 Styczynski et al. (2012), 2938.
39 Styczynski et al. (2012), 2937, 2939. See also Pulsipher (2012), Pereira et al. (2017).
40 Styczynski et al. (2012), 2937.
41 Chan et al. (1996), 645–6.
42 See, for example, Wiener et al. (2007), Bauk et al. (2013). See also recent studies analyzing
different aspects of the child donor experience: van Walraven et al. (2013), D’Auria et al. (2015),
Hutt et al. (2015), Elfer (2017).
Clinical Context 7
role in decision-making.43 Such findings would be consistent with what adult donors
experience.44 Some child donors have reported feelings of being pressured or coerced
into acting without any choice,45 whereas other studies found donors considered there
was ‘no decision’ to be made, such was their immediate reaction to knowing they
could act as a donor.46
One larger study found that approximately 20% of paediatric donors scored poorly
on a health-related quality of life measurement, both before and up to one year fol-
lowing donation.47 That study found that younger children (between five and seven
years) were the most vulnerable. Studies have also shown parents overestimating
their donor child’s health-related quality of life and not appreciating the complex
emotional responses experienced by donors.48 Some have suggested that psycholog-
ical support for child donors both in the immediate and long term is required.49
Many of these studies have limitations, for example, limited sample size and
exclusion of donors where the recipient has passed away. While most of these studies
pose more questions than answers, some of these reported issues point the way to
improvements in processes for donor children that are discussed in this book.
Repeated calls have been made for further research in this area in an attempt to
advance the evidence base for designing more appropriate interventions for donors
and their families.50 This book adds to these calls by shedding light on clinical
perspectives and the role of regulation. It is suggested that consideration of more
appropriate regulation is another way to safeguard the interests of donor children.
Pelletier et al. (2015), D’Auria et al. (2015), Weaver et al. (2015), Switzer et al. (2016), Switzer
et al. (2017), Derrington and Essner (2016).
8 1 Introduction
When looking at the child donor, the rights of such a child must be considered.
While philosophers have argued about the nature of rights and whether children can
be genuine rights holders, this book takes the view that children can, and do, possess
rights.51
The rights discussed in this book are a subset of human rights—i.e. human rights
attributable to children. In discussing these rights, it is recognised that while these
rights may be protected by law, this is not the only way that rights can be recognized
and respected.52 Sometimes non-legal means of regulation can be more effective at
respecting rights, and this is certainly arguably in the clinical ethical setting. This
accords with Sen’s view:
Human rights can be seen as primarily ethical demands. They are not principally ‘legal’…
commands. Even though human rights can, and often do, inspire legislation, this is a further
fact, rather than a constitutive characteristic of human rights.53
In terms of decision-making for children, the main theoretical divide has been
between a paternalistic welfarist perspective versus a children’s rights perspective.
However, as noted by Choudhry and Herring, ‘in many cases a welfare and rights
perspective will produce the same result’.54 Rather what distinguishes the approaches
is the view of who should be the primary decision-maker and the level of participation
of a child in the decision-making process.55 The welfarist is likely to accept that
parents and/or the court is always the proper decision-maker for a child. This view
is rejected by a children’s right advocate who will look to the child him or herself,
when competent, or the most appropriate surrogate decision-maker when they are
not, but recognizing that even non-competent children have a right to participate.
This book accepts that a children’s rights perspective should guide regulation and
action in this context.
At an international level the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(‘Convention’) provides an authoritative statement of what these rights include and
member States’ obligations towards children.56 Having achieved nearly universal
ratification by member states (with the notable exception of the United States), it
is arguable that some of the articulated rights are on their way to being accepted as
having the status of customary international law. The influence of the Convention at
national levels is discussed in later chapters.
In relation to children who are proposed as and who act as tissue donors there are
a range of potentially relevant rights that could be discussed in this context—e.g. the
51 Fordiscussion of children’s rights generally see, Eekelaar (1986, 1992), Freeman (1992), Fortin
(2009).
52 Choudhry and Herring (2010), 99.
53 Sen (2004), 319.
54 Choudhry and Herring (2010), 112.
55 Choudhry and Herring (2010), 112.
56 United Nations (1989).
Frameworks Informing This Monograph 9
right to protection from harm (art 19), and the right to privacy and noninterference
with family (art 16). While it is accepted that these rights may be relevant, the
focus of this book is on the two rights that correspond with articles 3 and 12 of
the Convention, namely, the right for a child to have his or her best interests taken
as a primary consideration (art 3) and the right of the child to be heard (art 12).
These rights constitute two of the four ‘general principles’ of the Convention that
establish rights in of themselves, but are also considered in the interpretation and
implementation of all other rights.57
Best Interests
Best interests is a concept with foundations in both ethical discourse and legal princi-
ple. The existence of a best interests standard to guide decision-making on behalf of
those considered vulnerable in our societies predates the existence of the Convention.
In the Convention itself, article 3(1) relevantly states:
In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare
institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests
of the child shall be a primary consideration.
The content that needs to be assessed in applying this standard, that by its very
nature is paternalistic, is likely to differ for each child and each decision that needs
to be made. As discussed in Chap. 2, while the standard can be viewed positively
as ‘flexible and adaptable’58 it equally suffers from criticisms of being vague and
unpredictable.59
Despite the criticisms, the best interests standard remains the mainstream ethi-
cal and legal justification for medical decision-making on behalf of children. It is
accepted that this standard remains relevant and is an appropriate legal standard for
courts within a children’s rights framework.60 How this plays out in practice, and how
the courts apply this standard in child donation cases is explored further in this book.
In Chap. 2 the ethical basis of best interests is discussed, Chaps. 4–6 discusses how
the best interests legal standard has been utilized in the United Kingdom, Australia
and the United States and Chap. 3 gives an insight into how health professionals
view it in the context of caring for donor children.
respect refers to not only a child’s right to be informed, voice views, and be listened
to, but also arguably extends—in some cases—to making the actual decision to act
as a donor. The way this is expressed in article 12 of the Convention is:
1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the
right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child
being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.
2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in
any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a
representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of
national law.61
61 The Committee notes that the implementation of article 12 has been broadly conceptualised as
‘participation’, despite the absence of the term in article 12 itself: United Nations Committee on
the Rights of the Child (2009), 3.
62 Fortin (2009), 299.
63 United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (2009), 8–9.
64 Tobin (2012), 147.
65 Stegenga et al. (2018), Kilkelly and Donnelly (2011), Donnelly and Kilkelly (2011).
66 United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (2009), 9–10.
Frameworks Informing This Monograph 11
has effective ways of conveying their views to relevant parties. This can be particu-
larly problematic in the court setting.67 How children of varying ages and cognitive
capacities are given the opportunity to participate in these vastly different arenas of
medicine and law is discussed in more detail in Chaps. 4–6.
While there has sometimes been a dichotomous approach to use of the welfarist best
interests approach as compared with a ‘rights-based approach’, these two perspec-
tives can, and do, exist under the Convention framework. Snelling’s suggestion that
‘rights-based reasoning should inform a best-interest analysis’68 is largely consistent
with how the Committee has interpreted the interaction of the right to express a view
and participate under article 12 and the operation of the best interest standard in
article 3.69
The Committee States:
There is no tension between articles 3 and 12, only a complementary role of the two general
principles: one establishes the objective of achieving the best interest of the child and the
other provides the methodology for reaching the goal of hearing… the child… In fact, there
can be no correct application of article 3 if the components of article 12 are not respected.
Likewise, article 3 reinforces the functionality of article 12, facilitating the essential role of
children in all decisions affecting their lives.70
In considering the work of these rights for children as tissue donors, Brennan’s
views—of a gradualist approach to viewing children’s rights—is adopted. She sug-
gests that: ‘children move gradually from having their rights primarily protect their
interests to having their rights primarily protect their choices … reflect[ing] the
transition of the child from being a creature whose interests are of moral concern,
and hence deserve the protection of rights, to being a creature who can choose for
herself’.71
This approach proposes that children’s rights initially function to ‘protect their
interests’ when they are very young, but as they mature and develop into autonomous
individuals, rights eventually act to ensure their choices are respected.72 Where chil-
dren are severely cognitively impaired with no change in cognitive capacity over time,
rights are still rightfully attributed to them—but they continue to work to primarily
protect their interests.
67 Fortin(2009), 291.
68 Snelling(2016), 51.
69 United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (2009), United Nations Committee on the
Using a gradualist view of children’s rights in which the focus moves from protec-
tion to respect for a child depending on their development and maturity is consistent
with the approach in this book.
This work adopts a de-centred view of law as one of a variety of forms of potentially
effective regulation. While the law has traditionally been considered as the tool of
regulation set by the State, it is not the only instrument that can influence or guide
an area of practice.73 Indeed, as recognised by Heimer:
Although law is a very special kind of normative system, it nevertheless must co-exist
with other normative systems. These overlapping normative systems sometimes support or
reinforce each other but at other times are in fierce competition.74
This explanation fits well with how the law and non-legal standards—in the form
of professional guidelines, policies and standards—are generally viewed.
In this area, regulation of children acting as donors is composed of domestic and
international law, international standards and domestic professional guidelines.
One of the concerns of this book is whether donor children are treated appro-
priately—in being given appropriate protections and respect through regulatory
schemes—and whether a new regulatory response is needed to ensure this.
73 Black (2002).
74 Heimer (2010), 179.
75 Parker and Braithwaite (2003), 130–131.
76 See generally Parker and Braithwaite (2003), 123.
77 See, for example, Magnusson (2002).
78 See generally Parker and Braithwaite (2003), 127.
79 Black (1997), 20.
Qualitative Research 13
Qualitative Research
Chapters 3 and 7 incorporate the results of a qualitative study that was conducted with
health care professionals in Australia. For an overview of the research methodology
adopted, see Appendix A. The rationale for including these results is that it allows
the theory of law and medical ethics to be compared against the ‘reality’ of medical
practice as described by those clinicians.
The approach to this research can be characterised as being from the perspective
of a ‘critical realist’—as the term is described by Maxwell.80 The main features of
such a stance are that:
• ontologically, it is accepted that ‘there is a real world that exists independently of
our perceptions, theories, and constructions’;
• epistemologically, it is recognised that ‘our understanding of the world is
inevitably a construction from our own perspectives and standpoint’; and
• there is ‘no possibility of attaining a single, “correct” understanding of the world’.81
This research will only be able to access and investigate a small part of the ‘real-
ity’ of child donation. Indeed in doing so, a researcher’s own history and values
inevitably shape the outputs of such research. The nature of social research is that
many influences are present and not all are able to be identified through any method
of research. In attempting to access and present knowledge about the topic of child
donors, qualitative methods have been used to provide a ‘thick description’82 of the
views of health professionals on the topics of ethics, regulation and medical practice
relating to child donors. Qualitative interviewing as the main tool of data collection
was used as it is accepted that people’s ‘knowledge, views, understandings, interpre-
tations, experiences and interactions are meaningful properties of the social reality’
worth investigating.83
The qualitative work focuses on ‘how social phenomena and processes operate
or are constituted’.84 While this work attempts to elucidate and explain, to a lim-
ited extent, how and why certain things happen in the context of child donors, these
explanations are not based on the idea that certain variables have a cause-effect rela-
tionship to outcomes.85 This research does not purport to provide definitive answers,
solutions or theories to ‘explain’ the views of health care professionals. Instead it
offers an insight into their perspectives and seeks to offer some limited explanation
80 Maxwell (2012), 3–5. See also generally the description of postpositivist in Lincoln et al. (2011),
98–115.
81 Maxwell (2012), 5.
82 See Ponterotto (2006), 543: ‘Thick description describes observed social actions and assigns
purpose and intentionality to these actions, by way of the researcher’s understanding and clear
description of the context under which the social actions took place. Thick description captures
the thoughts and feelings of participants as well as the often complex web of relationships among
them.’
83 Mason (2002), 63. See also Patton (2002), 21, Kvale (2007), 10–12.
84 Mason (2002), 175.
85 Mason (2002), 175.
14 1 Introduction
as to why certain things tend to occur, or not occur, in medical practice.86 The aim is
to ‘understand the processes, meanings, and local contextual influences involved’ in
relation to child donation.87 The findings presented here must, therefore, be viewed
against this understanding.
Socio-legal research such as this adds much to a mere doctrinal critique, helping to
elucidate the real, lived complexity of the issue and the significance (or lack thereof)
of the regulatory frameworks to those who are pivotal in clinical practice.
In Chap. 2, the ethical theories and principles that underpin the arguments for and
against children acting as tissue donors are discussed. This provides the ethical
foundation for the remainder of the book.
Chapter 3 uses the results of qualitative research to assess whether the ethical
frameworks discussed in Chap. 2 have influenced clinical practice. As discussed
there, the ethical literature often fails to account for the rich complexity and variety
of viewpoints present at the clinical level.
In Chaps. 4–6 the regulation of children acting as tissue donors through legal
and non-legal domestic regulation is examined. The differing regulatory positions in
the United Kingdom (Chap. 4), Australia (Chap. 5) and the United States (Chap. 6)
are discussed. Regulation in these countries is complicated with there often being
an interplay between legal regulation—in the form of legislated schemes and court
cases—and professional ethical guidance. International law also plays a role, with
countries adopting different positions regarding children’s rights to participation in
medical and judicial decision-making. What we see from these chapters is that often
the law governing when a child can act as a donor is complex and unsatisfactory.
Chapter 7 examines the views of clinicians in relation to the role of law and other
form of non-legal regulation. It also discusses a number of international standards
and guidelines that exist separate from the national professional guidelines discussed
in Chaps. 4–6.
Chapter 8 provides a recapitulation of the main findings and considers what can
be done to improve current regulation for the benefit of child donors.
Ultimately, it is argued that the interests of child donors have been forgotten for
too long. Donor children are deserving of attention and, in treating them with respect,
their voices ought to be heard before, during and after the act of donation occurs.
86 In this respect, some ‘causal processes’ (as that term is used by in Maxwell (2012), 35–8) will be
identified in this book from analysis of the fieldwork data. See also Mason (2002), 175.
87 Maxwell (2012), 94.
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