The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act proposes state legislation that should be enacted to ensure an adequate and coordinated response to public health emergencies.
Physicians have an obligation to report parents to the local Child Protective Services if they suspect that the parents are using corporal punishment as a form of discipline.
Physicians are obligated in many jurisdictions to perform life-sustaining treatments on premature infants with serious developmental or physical impairments, even if it goes against the parents' wishes.
David Collier, MD, PhD, Ronald M. Perkin, MD, MA, and Joseph R. Zanga, MD
The legal definitions of child neglect and child abuse are not as clear cut when faced with the issue of whether parents should be held responsible for failing to follow weight-loss plans for a morbidly obese child.
Physicians have an obligation to report parents to the local Child Protective Services if they suspect that the parents are using corporal punishment as a form of discipline.
A case that describes how treatment decisions for a seriously ill baby should consider the advice and recommendations of the medical team as well as the parental preferences for the child's care.
Physicians need to carefully explain the difficult medical realities of carrying a fetus with severe congenital abnormalities to term but then follow the wishes of a religious family who ask for reasonable medical care.