Ethical Aspects of Obesity Management in Children

Introduction: Childhood obesity is a growing global health problem, but in the view of medical ethics, obesity management in children is associated with challenges. Method and materials: This study is a comprehensive review in English (Cochrane Library, and PubMed) and Persian literature which pointed to the ethical aspects of pediatrics obesity management with content analysis. Results: In the childhood obesity interventions, clinical trials should be carefully designed with obtaining approval of ethics committee, selection of the appropriate outcomes, contributing to the family, the assent of the child and consent of family, confidentiality, truth telling, fairness and avoiding discrimination and stigma paid investments. Each of community, government, health systems, media and family have special responsibilities in these interventions that cause a somehow violation of personal freedom, privacy invasion and interference with lifestyle options. In the meantime, with the help of four ethical principles (Autonomy, Beneficence, Justice, Non-maleficence) interventions within the ethical boundaries can be identified. In principle of autonomy with regard to parents are the child’s legal guardians, sometimes with focus on the right refuse obesity interventions. But Islamic ethics and sound medical judgment dictate that with the observance of other moral principles [like la darar wa la dirar (No harm  and no harassment) and maslaha (benefit)] in the cases of severe or complicated obesity which obviously affected the lifetime or health of the child done interventions, in the view of duty-oriented. However, obesity in children can be deemed a kind of negligence or neglect of children's health and opposed with provisions of the Convention of rights of children which based on medical paternalistic attitude build Medical intervention obligatory. Conclusion: To fight obesity, appropriate interventions require full compliance with medical ethics in schools, families and society. In this context, the compiling of ethical guidelines in child obesity interventions will be helpful. Keywords: Obesity, Children, Management, medical Ethical.

Evaluation of anti-malarial activity of Artemisia turcomanica and A. kopetdaghensis by cell-free β-hematin formation assay

Background and objectives:The plants of genus Artemisia (Asteraceae) have been conventionally used for prevention and medication of a number of ailments. In the present research, ten extracts with different polarities from aerial parts of two Artemisia species, A. kopetdaghensis and A. turcomanica were evaluated for their potential anti-malarial properties. Methods: The plant materials were extracted successively with petroleum ether (PE), dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate (EtOAC), ethanol, and ethanol-water (1:1 v/v)  by cold maceration method. Cell free β-hematin formation assay were used for assessing anti-malarial activity of obtained extracts. Results: DCM extract of A. kopetdaghensis and PE extract of A. turcomanica showed remarkable anti-malarial activity with IC50 values of 1.04±0.02 mg/mL and 0.90±0.27 mg/mL, respectively, compared to positive control (chloroquine, IC50 0.04±0.01 mg/mL). Conclusion:  It seems that the anti-malarial activity of these extracts might be bound up with the presence of compounds with low or medium polarity; hence, this preliminary test indicated that these potent extracts could be considered for further investigations to find new sources of anti-malarial phytochemicals