Following evidence-based approaches to evaluating and reporting suspicion of child maltreatment can help minimize bias and promote equity.

Separation of children from their parents is one possible traumatizing consequence of a mandated report, which is not to be taken lightly.

When health care professionals encounter child abuse and neglect, they tend to experience a range of emotions, such as anger, sadness, and frustration.

If it is ethically justifiable for clinicians to err by overreporting suspected abuse and neglect, we must fairly distribute benefits and harms among all children and families.

This narrative illuminates need for students and clinicians to be well prepared to face ethically and structurally complex realities of identifying and responding to children.

Drs Andrea Asnes and Sundes Kazmir join Ethics Talk to discuss medical child abuse, sites of pediatric neglect, and how clinicians can best carry out their responsibilities as mandatory reporters.

Dr Colleen E. Bennett joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Cindy W. Christian: “How Should Clinicians and Students Cope With Secondary Trauma When Caring for Children Traumatized by Abuse or Neglect?”

Principles of respect for autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence guide trauma-informed care. Care ethics should also support this framework for responding to the health needs of trafficked patients.

AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Terri Davis, a third-year MD student at West Virginia University School of Medicine, interviewed Ranit Mishori, MD, about how to respond to incidents of suspected human trafficking in health care settings.

Physicians caring for trafficking victims should know about applicable criminal and human rights law and mandatory reporting requirements.