Parenting Journal · Volume 3 · Issue 1 · Licensed source edition
AI-assisted consent in paediatric medicine: ethical implications of using large language models to support decision-making
Originally published 2025-08-06 · Journal of Medical Ethics
BMJ · DOI 10.1136/jme-2024-110624 ↗
AI / system type
Generative AI / pediatric-consent ethics
Family implicationsDesign, ethics, stakeholder or technical evidence with child/family implications; household benefits are not assumed.
The AI connection
Examines how generative LLMs might support pediatric consent and the ethical risks of such use.
Why this reading matters
Addresses a consequential family decision process in which understandable information, respect and freedom from manipulation all matter.
Editorial reading guide · Respect
Could AI help a child understand a care decision without steering the family unfairly?
The analysis places children’s developing voice and parents’ responsibilities at the center of AI-supported communication, distinguishing assistance from undue influence.
Study context
Pediatric consent and assent scenarios
Age / stage: Children with evolving decisional capacity; no participant sample
Read with three questions
- How are consent, assent and developing autonomy distinguished?
- What influence or family-conflict risks could arise?
- Which safeguards are proposed, and which have not been empirically tested?
Keep the limits in view
This is ethical argument and scenario analysis, not evidence that an implemented LLM improves consent or resolves conflict. Proposed safeguards require practical evaluation.
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Follow the original.
Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Jemima Winifred Allen; Brian David Earp; Dominic Wilkinson (2025). AI-assisted consent in paediatric medicine: ethical implications of using large language models to support decision-making Journal of Medical Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme-2024-110624
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.