The moral experience of parents regarding life-support decisions for their critically-ill children: a preliminary study in France

The moral experience of parents regarding life-support decisions for their critically-ill children: a preliminary study in France

Carnevale FA; Canoui P; Hubert P; Farrell C; Leclerc F; Doussau A; Seguin MJ; Lacroix J

Journal Of Child Health Care

2006

Child; Humans; Intensive Care Units; Grief; Questionnaires; Professional-Family Relations; Health Services Needs and Demand; Communication; Clinical Competence; Qualitative Research; Morals; Hospitals; Nursing Methodology Research; Pediatric; Adaptation; Psychological; decision making; infant; Parents/education/psychology; ICU Decision Making; social support; Physician's Role/psychology; Hospitalized/psychology; Intensive Care/psychology; Guilt; Life Support Care/psychology; Attitude to Health/ethnology; Parental Consent/psychology; Paris

The common paediatric critical care practice in France is for physicians (rather than parents) to maintain the ultimate responsibility for lifesupport decisions in children. Some French literature asserts that it is inappropriate for parents to bear such responsibilities because they do not have the required knowledge and should be protected from feeling culpable for such decisions. The aim of this grounded theory preliminary study was to examine the moral experience of parents of critically-ill children that required life-support decisions in France. A convenience purposive sample of seven parents was recruited in Paris. Five principal themes emerged as significant from these interviews: (1) a need for more information

(2) physicians should be responsible for life-support decisions

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