The EACH Charter as an instrument of bolstering and protection of ethical aspects of paediatric hospitalization

The Charter of rights of children in hospital (the EACH Charter) is an international document authored by the European Association for Children in Hospital (EACH) in the eighties of the twentieth century. The Charter can be perceived as a response to the fact that a child's stay in hospital - and paediatric hospital as an institution - is strongly influenced and formed by economical, technological and administrative aspects prevailing over the ethical ones. The Charter highlights specific situations where the health care profession - by neglecting children's needs and ignoring and/or tolerating avoidable suffering - becomes unethical. The aim of my thesis is to scrutinize the ethical appeal of the EACH Charter and to explore the Charter's ethical implications for contemporary paediatric practice in the Czech Republic