title: Infants' best interests in end-of-life care for newborns.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pediatric bioethics presumes that decisions should be taken in the child's best interest. If it's ambiguous whether a decision is in the child's interest, we defer to parents. Should parents be permitted to consider their own interests in making decisions for their child? In the Netherlands, where neonatal euthanasia is legal, such questions sometimes arise in deciding whether to hasten the death of a critically ill, suffering child. We describe the recommendations of a national Dutch committee. Our objectives were to analyze the role of competing child and family interests and to provide guidance on end-of-life decisions for doctors caring for severely ill newborns.
  
  
  METHODS
  We undertook literature review, 7 consensus meetings in a multidisciplinary expert commission, and invited comments on draft report by specialists' associations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Initial treatment is mandatory for most ill newborns, to clarify the prognosis. Continuation of treatment is conditional on further diagnostic and prognostic data. Muscle relaxants can sometimes be continued after withdrawal of artificial respiration without aiming to shorten the child's life. When gasping causes suffering, or protracted dying is unbearable for the parents, muscle relaxants may be used to end a newborn's life. Whenever muscle relaxants are used, cases should be reported to the national review committee.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  New national recommendations in the Netherlands for end-of-life decisions in newborns suggest that treatment should generally be seen as conditional. If treatment fails, it should be abandoned. In those cases, palliative care should be directed at both infant and parental suffering. Sometimes, this may permit interventions that hasten death.
authors.affiliation: Section of Medical Ethics, Department of General Practice, Academic Medical Centre/University of Amsterdam, Netherlands;
authors.forename: Dick L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Willems
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands; and a.a.e.verhagen@umcg.nl.
authors.forename: A A Eduard
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Verhagen
authors.affiliation: Royal Dutch Medical Association, Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van Wijlick
mesh_terms: D003245:Consensus Statements as Topic; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000592:standards; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000592:standards*
keywords: clinical bioethics; end-of-life decisions; neonatal intensive care; palliative care