# Sibling Obligations in Health Care

> **NIH NIH G13** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2022 · $49,980

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 The goal of this project is to write a book that addresses the responsibilities and obligations between
siblings in health care. The reason to care about siblings is that they may be the longest relationship of our
lives. It is a relationship that (usually but not always) involves a shared upbringing, shared genes and shared
secrets, and they are often the most significant relationships with respect to our psychological and emotional
development. The reason to care about sibling responsibilities and obligations in health care is that a diagnosis
of a health problem in one sibling has health implications for the others. Sometimes it may mean that the other
siblings are at increased risk for the same disorder or condition (due to genetics or environment). Other times it
may mean that family resources and energy are disproportionately focused on the family member with the
disorder or condition to the disappointment of the other siblings. It may also lead to a request or demand for
sibling help—from information sharing to tissue or organ donation to physical care giving or proxy decision-
making.
 The question, “What are our obligations to our siblings?”, remains largely unanswered in the
philosophical literature and in the bioethics literature generally, and not just specifically in health care, despite
the fact that most of us are born and raised in families with more than one child (at least in the United States
(US) and the fact that these relationships persist, albeit with changing degrees of intensity, proximity, and
mutuality across the lifespan. To write this book, I need to develop a normative framework with which to think
about sibling relationships, obligations and responsibilities that can accommodate great variability and diversity
in families and family structures. Then, the utility of this framework needs to be evaluated in various clinical
settings with siblings of different degrees of intimacy, biological relatedness and proximity of age. I will use
cases in five areas of health care: 1) solid organ and tissue transplantation; 2) assisted reproduction; 3)
genetics; 4) human experimentation; and 5) decision making for and with siblings with disabilities. The
methodology will involve an ethical analysis of case studies and classic problems that will be analyzed to
achieve reflective equilibrium between the normative theory and judgments about the cases. Cases and classic
problems are an important component of the book because they facilitate 1) comprehension of the complex
issues and highlight the social context of intrafamilial health care responsibilities and obligations; and 2) appeal
to a broad audience of health care professionals, bioethicists and other social scientists interested in sibling
relationships.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10304913
- **Project number:** 5G13LM013003-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Lainie Friedman Ross
- **Activity code:** G13 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $49,980
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-12-01 → 2022-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10304913

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10304913, Sibling Obligations in Health Care (5G13LM013003-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10304913. Licensed CC0.

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