title: Media coverage of the Child B case.
abstract: The case of a girl with leukaemia, known as Child B, hit the headlines in March 1995 when her father refused to accept the advice of doctors who counselled against further treatment and took Cambridge and Huntingdon Health Authority to court for refusing to fund chemotherapy and a second bone transplant for her in the private sector. British national newspapers varied greatly in the way they covered the case. Some paid little attention to clinical considerations and presented the case as an example of rationing based on financial considerations. Their selective presentations meant that anyone reading just one newspaper would have received only limited and partial information. If members of the public are to participate in debates about treatment decisions and health care rationing, means other than the media will need to be found to inform and involve them.
authors.affiliation: NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York. vael@york.ac.uk
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Entwistle
authors.forename: I S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Watt
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bradbury
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Pehl
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003657:Decision Making; D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D035081:Editorial Policies; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D015276:Health Care Rationing; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D018447:Medical Futility; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D010166:Palliative Care; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000628:therapy*; D017149:Private Sector; D011639:Public Opinion; D011641:Public Relations; D040841:Resource Allocation; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013222:State Medicine; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D036302:Therapeutic Human Experimentation; D035703:Therapies, Investigational; D028761:Withholding Treatment