Ethics and the management of terminally ill children.

On withholding nutrition and hydration in the terminally ill: has palliative medicine gone too far?

This paper explores ethical issues relating to the management of patients who are terminally ill and unable to maintain their own nutrition and hydration. A policy of sedation without hydration or nutrition is used in palliative medicine under certain circumstances. The author argues that this policy is dangerous, medically, ethically and legally, and can be disturbing for relatives. The role o...

Promoting an ethic of engagement in pediatric palliative care research

BACKGROUND This paper defends the ethical and empirical significance of direct engagement with terminally ill children and adolescents in PPC research on health-related quality of life. Clinical trials and other forms of health research have resulted in tremendous progress for improving clinical outcomes among children and adolescents diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Less attention ha...

Palliative care ethics: non-provision of artificial nutrition and hydration to terminally ill sedated patients.

Nutrition, dehydration and the terminally ill.

Life stories of families with a terminally ill child.

Family units with a terminally ill child have a tendency to withdraw and this isolation may lead to problems in their mental health. A tendency with psychologists, clergy and helpers from other professions is to act as ideal experts on the lives of saddened people. From painful personal experience, this does not seem to enable acquiescence. Therefore, the aim of research on families with termin...