Ethical Aspects of Personalized Research and Management of Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) in Children

Elisa Groff (), Marcin Orzechowski, Catharina Schuetz and Florian Steger
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Elisa Groff: Institute of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Ulm University, 89073 Ulm, Germany
Marcin Orzechowski: Institute of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Ulm University, 89073 Ulm, Germany
Catharina Schuetz: Paediatric Immunology, Medical Faculty “Carl Gustav Carus”, Technic University Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Florian Steger: Institute of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Ulm University, 89073 Ulm, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is a life-threatening condition with nonspecific symptoms. Because of that, defining a targeted therapy against SIRS in children and adults remains a challenge. The identification of diagnostic patterns from individualized immuneprofiling can lead to development of a personalized therapy. The aim of this study was to identify and analyze ethical issues associated with personalized research and therapy for SIRS in pediatric populations. We conducted an ethical analysis based on a principled approach according to Beauchamp and Childress’ four bioethical principles. Relevant information for the research objectives was extracted from a systematic literature review conducted in the scientific databases PubMed, Embase and Web of Science. We searched for pertinent themes dealing with at least one of the four bioethical principles: “autonomy”, “non-maleficence”, “beneficence” and “justice”. 48 publications that met the research objectives were included in the thorough analysis, structured and discussed in a narrative synthesis. From the analysis of the results, it has emerged that traditional paradigms of patient’s autonomy and physician paternalism need to be reexamined in pediatric research. Standard information procedures and models of informed consent should be reconsidered as they do not accommodate the complexities of pediatric omics research.

Keywords: systemic inflammatory response syndrome; SIRS; child; clinical ethics; research ethics; personalized medicine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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