Ethical and legal considerations when supporting children engaging in eating and drinking with acknowledged risk in New Zealand.

Abstract

Purpose: Children and families choose eating and drinking with acknowledged risk, often while receiving support from professionals, such as paediatricians and speech-language pathologists. These decisions may fall inside the zone of parental discretion, where decisions are deemed to be 'good enough' for a child and may not prioritise physical health but would not cause significant harm. Often a contentious space, health professionals may feel uncertain of their ethical or legal obligations when supporting these families and children. Further complicated when children attend education and are fed by school staff, school-based speech-language pathologists may feel unsure how to support these children and families. Much of the literature surrounding paediatric feeding disorders comes from the US; however, these studies do not consider the legal context of New Zealand.

Result: This article attempts to outline laws, legal principles, and ethical principles applicable to this topic, in the hopes of highlighting health professionals' obligations and options when supporting these families.