Children make good end-of-life decisions

SYDNEY, Oct 5, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A groundbreaking Australian study suggests young cancer patients are able to understand the consequences and make good end-of-life decisions.

The study at St. Jude Children's hospital and the Sydney Children's Hospital, both in Sydney, involved pediatric cancer patients as young as 10 years old who were aware their disease was incurable.

Researchers said the children demonstrated the ability to participate meaningfully in discussions of their own end-of-life care with family members and their health care team.

The children identified their deaths as an outcome of their decisions to end or limit treatment, understood they were participating in decisions about the end of their own lives, and recognized the consequences of their decisions, said Pamela Hinds, director of nursing research at St. Jude and and the lead author of the study.

A report on the study, believed only one of a few focused on children rather than on parents and clinicians, was published in the Sept. 19 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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