Peer-reviewed article
Controversy About Dialysis for an Adolescent
For patients on dialysis, 1 frequent cause of death is their voluntary decision to discontinue dialysis. Such decisions raise complex questions when the patient is a competent adult. The decisions are even more complex when the patient is…
For patients on dialysis, 1 frequent cause of death is their voluntary decision to discontinue dialysis. Such decisions raise complex questions when the patient is a competent adult. The decisions are even more complex when the patient is an adolescent. In this article, we present a case in which a 17-year-old adolescent decided that she no longer wished to undergo dialysis through her fistula. Her doctors thought that dialysis using any other technique would be too dangerous. Four experts in pediatric nephrology, bioethics, and palliative care discuss this decision and the different ways that the health care team might respond.
Related writing.
Why the Dutch Keep Pediatric Euthanasia Illegal
Pediatric euthanasia in The Netherlands has a unique legal status - it is illegal, openly practiced, and well-regulated. The most surprising part isn't the law that enabled this — it's what happened after.
Associations of Physician Perspectives, Personal Choices, and Counseling for Severe Congenital Heart Defects
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether physicians' perspectives of outcomes or personal choices are associated with prenatal counseling for termination of pregnancy (TOP) or perinatal hospice for severe congenital heart defects (CHDs). METHOD:…
Variation in the extent to which patient information leaflets describe potential benefits and harms of trial interventions: a commentary
Clinical trial participants must understand the possible risks and benefits of trial interventions before providing their informed consent to participate. The aim of this commentary is twofold: to summarize the discrepancies in the extent…
Pediatric Gender Medicine—Reply
Third, emerging evidence suggests that modulating glycosylation pathways could offer a novel therapeutic strategy for asthma management.Xie et al 5 proposed that targeting glycan recognition receptors, such as sialic acid-binding…
About the author
John D. Lantos is a pediatrician and bioethicist writing on AI in medicine, neonatal intensive care, and end-of-life decisions. His essays appear in JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, the Hastings Center Report, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Aeon. Read more about John.