Written scenario · Ethics, Equity

Too young to choose

You sit on a city licensing committee as a resident member.

The committee is weighing a proposal to bar piercing shops from piercing the ears of babies and young children. Supporters say a child should decide about a lasting change to their own body when they are old enough to choose. Jin, who owns a licensed shop, tells the committee that for many local families this is a tradition carried out in the first months of life, and that a ban would only move it into kitchens, with less care. Parents on both sides are in the room. You must recommend whether to restrict the practice and how the city should answer the parents who object.