Far from home: preserving development and childhood in pediatric medical travel

Advancing medical technologies have expanded access to healthcare globally, providing caregivers of pediatric patients the opportunity to travel for healthcare, a phenomenon otherwise known as pediatric medical travel. Relocation for medical travel is driven by structural and geographical inequities in healthcare, including the centralization of specialized services, and travel is often justified under the principle of beneficence, as caregivers seek access to higher-quality, life-saving care. This thesis examines the experiences of pediatric medical travel through a multi-level framework, analyzing structural drivers, organizational supports, interpersonal-level burdens, and the individual experiences of pediatric patients. Through a bioethical analysis, this thesis argues that current justifications for pediatric medical travel insufficiently account for the predictable developmental harms associated with displacement and emphasizes an ethical obligation of healthcare systems to mitigate these burdens in childhood. Play emerges as a primary mechanism through which children process the harms of medical travel and institutions must ensure opportunities for structured play as a minimum ethical standard of care. By reframing pediatric medical travel to include both clinical and developmental considerations, this work emphasizes the need for healthcare systems to support not only survival, but the preservation of childhood during illness.