PERSPECTIVE
Management of menstruation
Manipulating growth and puberty in those with severe disability: when is it justified?
1 Department of Paediatrics and Growth, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
2 Department of Philosophy, University of Reading, Reading, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Gary E Butler
Department of Paediatrics and Growth, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Reading, London Road, Reading RG1 5AQ, UK; g.e.butler@reading.ac.uk
Perspective on the paper by Albanese and Hopper (see page 629)
Keywords: Competence; mental capacity; best interests; beneficence; non-maleficence; quality of life; consent
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Albanese and Hopper have laid out a clear stepwise approach to the management of menstruation, wanted and unwanted, in girls in whom self-management is either not an option or undesirable, or where prevention of unwanted pregnancies may be in the girl’s "best interests".1 It is the use or misuse of this phrase "best interests" that can license medical practitioners to extend the nature of interventions into uncharted territory. There is no doubt that it is in the child’s "best interests" to have a loving and stable home, and this is most likely to be best provided by the family. How far though should we extend clinical manipulation to achieve this end? This discussion was brought to the fore in the case of the American girl Ashley X, diagnosed with static encephalopathy,2 about whom discussions with her doctors over matters concerning puberty manipulation went far beyond the standard
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Articles
- Atoms
- Howard Bauchner
Arch. Dis. Child. 2007 92: 565.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Suppression of menstruation in adolescents with severe learning disabilities
- Assunta Albanese and Neil W Hopper
Arch. Dis. Child. 2007 92: 629-632.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
-
A brief digest of the July issue
Arch. Dis. Child. 2007 92: e7.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Slowther, A.
(2008). Clinical Ethics Committee case 3: Should parents be able to request non-therapeutic treatment for their severely disabled child?. Clin Ethics
3: 109-112
[Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
