title: Determining what is in the best interests of a critically ill child.
abstract: Controversy over the use of end-of-life pathways with terminally ill patients has now extended to their use with critically ill children and babies (Boyd and Murray, 2012). At the centre of the present controversy is the claim that parents feel coerced into agreeing that it is in their child's best interests to be placed on the pathway (Ford Rojas, 2012). In this article, Richard Griffith reviews the development of the best interests test adopted by the courts when dealing with cases of seriously ill children and babies, and argues that the test should inform the decision on when continued care and treatment become futile and the use of an end-of-life care pathway should be considered.
authors.affiliation: Swansea University, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Griffith
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized / Q000523:psychology*; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D018447:Medical Futility / Q000523:psychology*; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards