Ethical dilemmas in pediatric endocrinology: growth hormone for short normal children.
Ethical questions surrounding the administration of synthetic growth hormone (GH) to short normal children can be grouped into the following four categories: 1) appropriateness of medical treatment when no disease or biological deficiency is present; 2) how to proceed in the face of ambiguity or uncertainty of research results; 3) difficulty in weighing the risks and benefits of treatment; and 4) who should decide? This article seeks to determine whether GH administration to normal short children is properly considered an 'enhancement', and, if so, whether such treatment would be ethically wrong.
Macklin
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Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA. macklin@aecom.yu.edu
D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D004704:Endocrinology; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D019382:Human Growth Hormone / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D010372:Pediatrics; D018570:Risk Assessment
D019382:Human Growth Hormone