TY - JOUR T1 - Clinical ethics: medical tourism in children JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child SP - 1143 LP - 1144 DO - 10.1136/archdischild-2021-322778 VL - 106 IS - 12 AU - Giles Birchley AU - Mike Linney AU - Stephen W Turner AU - Dominic Wilkinson Y1 - 2021/12/01 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/106/12/1143.abstract N2 - Paediatricians sometimes learn that parents plan to take a child overseas for medical treatment (box 1). How should they respond?Box 1 Cases of medical tourism in childrenA child with severe eczema whose parents are first-generation immigrants. Parents plan to return to their home country for a second opinion.A child with relapsed malignancy with a short time to live. Parents are planning to take abroad for an experimental vitamin therapy.A child with autism. Parents plan to take overseas for intrathecal stem cell therapy.A young person with complex epilepsy. Parents planning to take overseas for cannabinoid-based medications.A child in a minimally conscious state, ventilated in intensive care. Parents wish to take to another country for tracheostomy and ongoing intensive care.A girl with no medical conditions. Parents plan to take overseas for female circumcision.Child medical tourism is ‘the bi-directional movement of children … to and from a country to seek advice, diagnosis and treatments’.1 In the UK, it is estimated that (pre-COVID-19) 63 000 adult patients sought treatment abroad yearly. The number of children (patients <18 years) involved in medical tourism is unknown. Decisions to seek treatment abroad are made privately by parents and usually uncontested by National Health Service (NHS) staff, despite some high-profile court cases.Child medical tourism happens because parents prefer another healthcare system (case A, box 1) or want access to therapies unavailable in the UK. Therapies may be unavailable because they are experimental (B, C), unlicensed for the indication or parents are unable to find a willing prescriber (D), there is disagreement about the child’s best interests (E), or they are illegal (F). Treatments range from those involving entirely unverified technologies to others where some evidence exists but below best evidence level. Where a ‘medically justifiable’ therapy is unavailable in the UK, some funding may be found through … ER -