Decision making concerning life-sustaining treatment in paediatric nephrology: professionals experiences and values

摘要

BackgroundIn a previous paper, we studied decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment (LST) taken between 1995 and 2001 in 31 French-speaking paediatric nephrology centres. Files were available for 18 of the 31 centres. A grid was used to analyse the criteria on which decisions were based, and the results were enriched by an analysis of interviews with the doctors in at these centres (31 interviews with doctors from the 18 centres). The goal was to describe in detail and to specify the criteria on which decisions to withhold or withdraw LST were based, extracted from the files.The second paper deals exclusively with the interviews with doctors and analyses their lifetime’s experience and perception