Parents’ false beliefs can be engaged respectfully to motivate deliberations about shared values and goals, but refusal of clinically indicated treatment could warrant reporting.
Stephanie L. Samuels, MD and Wilma C. Rossi, MD, MBE
When a parent resists a physician's recommendation for a pediatric patient, physician-parent partnering can promote the patient's best interest and help encourage lifestyle changes.
Childbirth in hospitals settings is considered by some to be medicalized and not natural. When medicalization is associated with loss of autonomy and control, clinicians should be aware of how they express respect for women during in-hospital births.
Patients have a right to decline or withdraw LVADs. Informed consent and shared decision making is not easy, however, with treatments that are high risk, high reward.