US immigration policy contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which all United Nations member nations have ratified except the United States. The convention recognizes that children need special assistance and legal protection and prohibits deprivation of liberty.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(1):E58-66. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.58.
Carmel Shachar, JD, MPH and Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, LLB, PhD
Legal approaches to preserving social stability, maintaining trust, supporting therapeutic research opportunities, or diminishing disease severity deserve ethical scrutiny.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(1):E36-42. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.36.
Thirty states have exceptions to child-neglect laws that provide shelter from misdemeanor violations for parents who treat their children through prayer in accord with the beliefs of a recognized religion.
The duty of forensic psychiatrists is to serve as objective experts to courts, but special circumstances in juvenile forensic evaluations and expectations about the patient-physician relationship may encourage confusion between the roles of forensic evaluator and treating psychiatrist.
Suppression of puberty should become the standard of care for gender identity disorder: it is safe and reversible, allows children more time to explore their gender identities, and prevents the development of difficult-to-reverse physical features.