Excerpt from: Medical Futility Blog (click for full article)
In
ancient Rome parents would consult the priestess Carmentis shortly
after birth to obtain prophecies of the future of their newborn infant.
Today, parents and doctors of critically ill children consult a
different oracle. Neuroimaging provides a vision of the child's future,
particularly of the nature and severity of any disability. Based on the
results of brain scans and other tests doctors and parents face
heart-breaking decisions about whether or not to continue intensive
treatment or to allow the child to die.
In this new book from Oxford University Press,
paediatrician and ethicist Dominic Wilkinson looks at the profound and
contentious ethical issues facing those who work in intensive care
caring for critically ill children and infants. When should infants or
children be allowed to die? How accurate are predictions of future
quality of life? How much say should parents have in these decisions?
How should they deal with uncertainty about the future? He combines
philosophy, medicine and science to shed light on current and future
dilemmas.
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