Cargando…

Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Making decisions about medical treatment for animal patients involves two key decision-makers, the animal owner and the veterinary surgeon. We aim to show that these decisions should and can be based on the ‘best interests’ of the animal, with both human decision-makers acting as adv...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gray, Carol, Fordyce, Peter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7341271/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32526900
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10061009
_version_ 1783555200958595072
author Gray, Carol
Fordyce, Peter
author_facet Gray, Carol
Fordyce, Peter
author_sort Gray, Carol
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Making decisions about medical treatment for animal patients involves two key decision-makers, the animal owner and the veterinary surgeon. We aim to show that these decisions should and can be based on the ‘best interests’ of the animal, with both human decision-makers acting as advocates for the animal requiring treatment. We suggest that the role of the animal owner is similar to that of a parent in making decisions for a child, drawing on legal cases to demonstrate the limits of parental (and owner) decision-making. To provide a firmer basis for ‘best interests’ decision-making, we adapt the factors included in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and demonstrate how these could be used with a typical clinical situation. Finally, we analyse the decisions from an ethical point of view. ABSTRACT: Medical decisions for young children are made by those with parental responsibility, with legal involvement only if the decision is potentially detrimental to the child’s welfare. While legally classified as property, some argue that animals are in a similar position to children; treatment decisions are made by their owners, posing a legal challenge only if the proposed treatment has the potential to cause harm or unnecessary suffering, as defined by animal protection legislation. This paper formulates the approach to a ‘best interests’ calculation, utilising the factors included in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and relying on exchange of information between the human parties involved. Although this form of decision-making must primarily protect the animal from unnecessary suffering, it recognises that the information provided by the owner is critical in articulating the animal’s non-medical interests, and hence in formulating what is in the animal’s best overall welfare interests. While statute law does not mandate consideration of ‘best interests’ for animals, this approach might reasonably be expected as a professional imperative for veterinary surgeons. Importantly, this version of a ‘best interests’ calculation can be incorporated into existing ethical frameworks for medical decision-making and the humane treatment of animals.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7341271
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-73412712020-07-14 Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK Gray, Carol Fordyce, Peter Animals (Basel) Commentary SIMPLE SUMMARY: Making decisions about medical treatment for animal patients involves two key decision-makers, the animal owner and the veterinary surgeon. We aim to show that these decisions should and can be based on the ‘best interests’ of the animal, with both human decision-makers acting as advocates for the animal requiring treatment. We suggest that the role of the animal owner is similar to that of a parent in making decisions for a child, drawing on legal cases to demonstrate the limits of parental (and owner) decision-making. To provide a firmer basis for ‘best interests’ decision-making, we adapt the factors included in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and demonstrate how these could be used with a typical clinical situation. Finally, we analyse the decisions from an ethical point of view. ABSTRACT: Medical decisions for young children are made by those with parental responsibility, with legal involvement only if the decision is potentially detrimental to the child’s welfare. While legally classified as property, some argue that animals are in a similar position to children; treatment decisions are made by their owners, posing a legal challenge only if the proposed treatment has the potential to cause harm or unnecessary suffering, as defined by animal protection legislation. This paper formulates the approach to a ‘best interests’ calculation, utilising the factors included in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and relying on exchange of information between the human parties involved. Although this form of decision-making must primarily protect the animal from unnecessary suffering, it recognises that the information provided by the owner is critical in articulating the animal’s non-medical interests, and hence in formulating what is in the animal’s best overall welfare interests. While statute law does not mandate consideration of ‘best interests’ for animals, this approach might reasonably be expected as a professional imperative for veterinary surgeons. Importantly, this version of a ‘best interests’ calculation can be incorporated into existing ethical frameworks for medical decision-making and the humane treatment of animals. MDPI 2020-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7341271/ /pubmed/32526900 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10061009 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Commentary
Gray, Carol
Fordyce, Peter
Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK
title Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK
title_full Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK
title_fullStr Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK
title_full_unstemmed Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK
title_short Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK
title_sort legal and ethical aspects of ‘best interests’ decision-making for medical treatment of companion animals in the uk
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7341271/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32526900
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10061009
work_keys_str_mv AT graycarol legalandethicalaspectsofbestinterestsdecisionmakingformedicaltreatmentofcompanionanimalsintheuk
AT fordycepeter legalandethicalaspectsofbestinterestsdecisionmakingformedicaltreatmentofcompanionanimalsintheuk