When Denial Hurts the Children: An Argument for Accountability of Denial in Parental Decision Making

摘要

The target article by Blumenthal-Barby and Ubel (2018) suggests that as a medical community, we must be more permissive in our approach to patients who we believe are unrealistically optimistic, offering that it may be beneficial to the overall care of the patient or, at a minimum, it may not be harmful. While the authors offer many arguments in defense of this opinion, they choose not to address the fundamental differences that exist when an individual is making decisions for her child, as opposed to decisions made for oneself or an incapacitated adult. Even greater differences and complexities arise when considering decision making for a critically ill child, specifically a newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).