Ethical Dilemmas in Pediatrics: Cases and Commentaries

by Edited by Lorry R. Frankel , Amnon Goldworth , Mary V. Rorty , William A. Silverman

• ISBN13: 9780521118613
• ISBN10: 0521118611
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-08-20
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Children in precarious health present particular problems for health-care professionals because of their intimate relation to their family, and because of the family's need to provide major long-term source of support and to be actively involved in the decisions about their children's care. This collection of cases and commentaries in pediatrics highlights the difficult ethical dilemmas that can arise during high-tech hospital care of children in precarious circumstances. It serves as a teaching tool for clinical ethics and as an introduction for medical students and residents. Clinical cases are described in detail by the physicians involved, who focus on the ethical issues arising during treatment. Each case is then commented on in detail by a philosopher or other bioethicist. It thus serves well as an introduction to contemporary clinical bioethics, but with a firm grounding in the practicalities of real-life pediatric care in the hospital setting.

Table of Contents

Therapeutic Misalliances:

Unconventional medicine in the pediatric intensive care unit

Role of responsibility in pediatrics: appeasing or transforming parental demands?

The extremely premature infant at the crossroads

The extremely premature infant at the crossroads: ethical and legal considerations

Munchausen syndrome by proxy Manuel

Conceptual and ethical issues in Munchausen syndrome

Medical Futility:

Letting go: a study in pediatric life-and-death decision making

Near drowning, futility and the limits of shared decision making

Long-term ventilation in a child with severe central nervous system impairment

Autonomy, community and futility: Moral paradigms for the long-term ventilation of severely impaired child

Complexities in the management of a brain dead child

The moral arena in the management of a brain dead child

Life By Any Means:

Where should a child die?

Where should a child (in the U.S.) die?

Infant heart transplantation and hypoplastic left heart syndrome: what are the ethical issues?

Infant heart transplantation and hypoplastic left heart syndrome: a response

Liver and intestinal transplantation

Transplantation and adolescents

Institutional Impediments to Ethical Action:

Ethics problems encountered with oncology and bone marrow transplant patients

Ethical problems encountered in the intensive care unit with oncology and bone marrow transplant patients

Nursing perspectives on withholding food and fluids in pediatrics

Ethics and clinical decision making: withholding food and information

Ethics and managed care

Challenging fidelity: physicians' role in rationing

Glossary of terms

Index

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