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.

Conflicts of interest must be acknowledged with sincerity and earnestness and managed such that the conflict is eliminated or, at least, credibly mitigated.

When regulatory decisions express overconfidence, one risk is that the costliness or misinformation will exacerbate health inequity.

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?”

A mandatory faculty course on dyslexia is recommended to prevent bias against and misunderstanding of medical students who have this condition.