Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Oct 14;26(1):133.
doi: 10.1186/s12910-025-01204-6.

Ethical issues in Iranian pediatrics: a qualitative study

Maryam Modabber  1 , Shabnam Bazmi  2 , Leila Masoudiyekta  1   3 , Mina Forouzandeh  4
Affiliations

Ethical issues in Iranian pediatrics: a qualitative study

Maryam Modabber et al. BMC Med Ethics. .

Abstract

Background: Children are recognized as one of the most vulnerable groups in society, and their integration into healthcare systems involves not only medical care but also significant emotional investment and time to achieve optimal outcomes. This process is complicated by various ethical challenges that healthcare teams face daily, influenced by social, cultural, economic, and religious factors. This study aims to identify the ethical challenges and the factors influencing their emergence in pediatric care in Iran. While developed countries have established ethical guidelines to address these challenges, Iran lacks similar frameworks tailored to its cultural and social context. Developing such ethical guidelines is crucial for fostering critical thinking, building trust among stakeholders, and ultimately facilitating ethical decision-making in pediatric healthcare. Given the absence of prior research on this topic in Iran, this study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the specific ethical dilemmas faced in pediatric settings.

Methods: The present qualitative study was conducted based on a grounded theory. The participants were 39 practitioners who were interviewed after giving consent and being briefed about the study. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed in this study. The data were then analyzed using Strauss-Corbin (1998) method in three phases of open, axial, and selective coding.

Results: During analysis, 1410 initial (open) codes, 22 categories, and 6 axial codes were obtained to explain the ethical challenges. These challenges included "Insufficient collaboration of physicians with parents and children"," Lack of support and respect for the service recipient by the physician", "Lack of trust and mutual understanding between physician and parents", "Lack of responsiveness and proper education to parents by the physician". Several factors contributed to the development of ethical challenges. This presented model, the most central of them was the distorted professional identity of the treatment team.

Discussion: The factors that cause ethical challenges in the pediatric clinic include: Inadequate moral education, Weak management, Lack of moral and legal rule, Individual Capabilities and Personality Traits, popular culture, distorted professional identity, the central code of which was distorted professional identity. The process of professional identity formation is a long-term and continuous process that is influenced by several factors. This conceptual model of professional identity creates the above ethical challenges in pediatrics medicine.

Keywords: Ethical challenges; Pediatrics medicine; Professional identity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Informed consent was obtained from all the participants in the interview. Regarding the recording of the interviewee’s voice, Verbal informed consent was obtained. The research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and other relevant national guidelines. In 2015, study of “explain the model of correcting ethical challenges in pediatrics” received the Code of Ethics from the Research Ethics Committee vice-chancellor in research affairs- shahid Beheshti university of Medical Sciences. The accreditation of the ethics committee is available in the national system of ethics in biomedical research of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran since 2017. To access the issued ethics code, log in through the link below: https://urm.sbmu.ac.ir/uploads/oldfile/akhlagh_sazemani24.pdf . The accreditation of the Research Ethics Committee vice-chancellor in research affairs- shahid Beheshti university of Medical Sciences can be accessed via the link on the website https://ethics.research.ac.ir/PortalCommittee.php?code=IR.SBMU.RETECH.REC . Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors have no competing interests as defined by BMC, or other interests that might be perceived to influence the results and/or discussion reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Ethical issues in Iranian pediatrics
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Guedert JM, Grosseman S. Ethical problems in pediatrics: what does the setting of care and education show Us?? BMC Med Ethics. 2012;13:1–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cardenas D, Correia MIT, Hardy G, Gramlich L, Cederholm T, Van Ginkel-Res A, et al. The international declaration on the human right to nutritional care: A global commitment to recognize nutritional care as a human right. Elsevier; 2023. - PubMed
    1. Fallat ME, Glover J. Bioethics co. Professionalism in pediatrics. Pediatrics. 2007;120(4):e1123–33. - PubMed
    1. Fallat ME, Glover J. Professionalism in pediatrics: statement of principles. Pediatrics. 2007;120(4):895–7. - PubMed
    1. Abd-Elfattah HM, Aly SM. Effect of core stability exercises on hand functions in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Annals Rehabilitation Med. 2021;45(1):71–8. - PMC - PubMed