Cross-Cultural Differences in Communication About a Dying Child.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Communication About a Dying Child.

Cochran D; Saleem S; Khowaja-Punjwani S; Lantos JD

Pediatrics

2017

Communication; Cross-cultural Comparison; Physician-patient Relations; Attitude To Death/ Ethnology; Child; Humans; Male; Pakistan/ethnology; Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis/ Diagnosis/ Ethnology; United States/ethnology

There are more migrants, refugees, and immigrants adrift in the world today than at any time in the recent past. Doctors and hospitals must care for people from many different cultures, countries, and religious backgrounds. We sometimes find our own deeply held beliefs and values challenged. In this "Ethics Rounds," we present a case in which a Pakistani immigrant family faces a tragic medical situation and wants to deal with it in ways that might be normative in their own culture but are aberrant in ours. We asked the American doctors and 2 Pakistani health professionals to think through the issues. We also invited the father to talk about his own experience and preferences. We conclude that strict adherence to Western ethical norms may not always be the best choice. Instead, an approach based on cultural humility may often allow people on both sides of a cultural divide to learn from one another.

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December 2017 List

Copyright (c) 2017 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.