title: The best-interests standard as threshold, ideal, and standard of reasonableness.
abstract: The best-interests standard is a widely used ethical, legal, and social basis for policy and decision-making involving children and other incompetent persons. It is under attack, however, as self-defeating, individualistic, unknowable, vague, dangerous, and open to abuse. The author defends this standard by identifying its employment, first, as a threshold for intervention and judgment (as in child abuse and neglect rulings), second, as an ideal to establish policies or prima facie duties, and, third, as a standard of reasonableness. Criticisms of the best-interests standard are reconsidered after clarifying these different meanings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Humanities, East Carolina University, School of Medicine, Greenville, NC 27858, USA.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Kopelman
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003657:Decision Making; D004989:Ethics; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D033222:Judicial Role; D007872:Legal Guardians / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D033242:Minors; D028681:Moral Obligations; D033282:Parental Consent; D040841:Resource Allocation; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012922:Social Change; D012945:Social Values; D014481:United States; D028761:Withholding Treatment