Height has social value.
Many studies show that taller people earn more and are more successful.
Some societies value height as a beneficial social characteristic
So, should we be giving growth hormone , in a safe, controlled dose to all children under a certain percentile?
What are the ethical and biological issues?
this question is beyond difficult and not amenable to short bytes of reply.
however, the short answer, ethically, if success is the criterion, is a simple NO!
here are 2 of dozens of papers on the subject:
Acta Paediatr. 2001 Jan;90(1):69-73.
Growth hormone in short children: beyond medicine?
Bolt LL(1), Mul D.
Author information:
(1)Department of Medical Ethics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Care, Erasmus
University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Comment in
Acta Paediatr. 2001 Jan;90(1):5-6.
The indications for growth hormone (GH) treatment in non-GH-deficient short
children are in debate, with some arguing that this treatment does not belong
solely in the medical domain. We describe three different approaches to the
issue, and argue that neither a disease-oriented nor client-oriented approach is
sufficient. Both lead to withdrawal of medical interventions or to an undesirable
application.CONCLUSION: An approach focusing on suffering as an indication for
treatment of short stature is the most appropriate. The challenge is to develop
proper tools by which to evaluate suffering and the efficacy of GH treatment in
these children in order to relieve or prevent suffering.
PMID: 11227337 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
---------------------
Soc Sci Med. 2015 Apr;131:305-12. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.015. Epub 2014
Oct 7.
Growth hormone, enhancement and the pharmaceuticalisation of short stature.
Morrison M(1).
Author information:
(1)Centre for Health, Law & Emerging Technologies (HeLEX), Nuffield Department of
Population Health, University of Oxford, Room 120, Rosemary Rue Building, Old
Road Campus, Headington, OX3 7LF Oxford, Oxon, UK. Electronic address:
This paper takes the biological drug human Growth Hormone (hGH) as a case study
to investigate processes of pharmaceuticalisation and medicalisation in
configuring childhood short stature as a site for pharmaceutical intervention.
Human growth hormone is considered to have legitimate applications in treating
childhood growth hormone deficiency and short stature associated with other
recognised conditions. It is also regarded by bioethicists and others as a form
of human biomedical enhancement when applied to children with idiopathic or
'normal' short stature. The purpose of this study is not to evaluate whether
treatment of idiopathic short stature is enhancement or not, but to evaluate how
some applications of hGH in treating short stature have come to be accepted and
stabilised as legitimate 'therapies' while others remain contested as
'enhancements'. A comparative, historical approach is employed, drawing on
approaches from medical sociology and Science and Technology Studies (STS) to set
out a socio-technical history of hGH in the US and UK. Through this history the
relative influence and interplay of drivers of pharmaceuticalisation, including
industry marketing and networks of drug distribution, and processes of
medicalisation will be employed to address this question and simultaneously query
the value of enhancement as a sociological concept.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.015
PMID: 25455477 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine
- Epi
- Age Groups
- Children