Physicians should provide women considering abortion after Down syndrome screening with unbiased information and not attempt to influence their decision.

Physicians new to a case might object to an established care plan. Practice variation, clinical momentum, and how value is assigned by different parties to acute care and comfort measures can each contribute to conflict in these cases.

Physicians must express compassion when discussing risk and success rates of palliative surgery.

Physicians need to help surrogate decision makers to make treatment and end-of-life decisions for those with severe neurological damage by proving a realistic prognosis and maintain strong lines of communication.

In treating children with autism, physicians should reframe the common dynamic in which the family wants medication that the doctor is withholding to focus instead on the family’s and physician’s share goal—the patient’s well-being.

Minors, including those with autism, have the right in certain states to make decisions about their own medical care provided they meet certain criteria. Even in cases in which the “mature minor exception” does not apply, physicians should actively engage patients in discussion of their treatment.

In treating children with autism, physicians should focus on involving parents in a shared decision making partnership and seeking safe, evidence-based, and medically and cost-effective treatments.

Diagnosing a child with borderline signs of Asperger disorder can be a gateway to needed interventions and services and also a label that stigmatizes or influences the child’s development.

Moral distress can be reduced by approaching the patient-physician relationship with empathy and humility, which foster trust and good communication.

An exploration of what could have been done to help the immigrant family of a severely ill child with his care.