A bioethics education program in pediatric rheumatology

The medical care of children by pediatric rheumatologists may be ethically very complex. Medical trainees and members of the multidisciplinary health care team must be sensitive to and knowledgeable about ethical issues relev ant to the care of their patients, and capable of ethical reasoning. Member s of the Bioethics Department and the Division of Rheumatology at the Hospi tal for Sick Children have cooperatively developed a Bioethics Education Pr ogram with a curriculum tailored to meet the needs of the health care team. The quarterly ethics seminars are case based and interdisciplinary. Topics addressed include the nature of the patient-practitioner relationship, res earch with child participants, the developing autonomy of the child, the ch ild's "best interests," and consent.