Work

The child's welfare interest-based right to bodily integrity

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Children are individuals, and they are owed rights as individuals. Here, I offer a defence of the child's right to bodily integrity against genital cutting and modification practices. The liberal commitment to the right to bodily integrity works with the harm principle as a liberty limiting commitment within a system that respects people's embodied moral personhood and their decisions about their lives and bodies. Like adults within a political system committed to the equal protection of individual rights, children must have equal rights that transcend the differences between them. But, they are different to adults in important ways, both philosophically and empirically. I offer an account of the child's right to bodily integrity that recognises them as particular embodied individuals, and prioritises their welfare interest in having their bodily integrity respected.

Source: Clinical Ethics

DOI: 10.1177/14777509241274227

Author: Kate Goldie Townsend

Institution: University of Exeter

Language: English

Topic: Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare

Subfield: Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,700