Display options
Cite
Bolcato M, Russo M, Feola A, et al. The Motion of the Italian National Bioethics Committee on Aggressive Treatment towards Children with Limited Life Expectancy. Healthcare (Basel). 2020;8(4)doi: 10.3390/healthcare8040448.
Bolcato, M., Russo, M., Feola, A., Della Pietra, B., Tettamanti, C., Bonsignore, A., Ciliberti, R., Rodriguez, D., & Aprile, A. (2020). The Motion of the Italian National Bioethics Committee on Aggressive Treatment towards Children with Limited Life Expectancy. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 8(4), . https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8040448
Bolcato, Matteo, et al. "The Motion of the Italian National Bioethics Committee on Aggressive Treatment towards Children with Limited Life Expectancy." Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 8,4 (2020). doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8040448
Bolcato M, Russo M, Feola A, Della Pietra B, Tettamanti C, Bonsignore A, Ciliberti R, Rodriguez D, Aprile A. The Motion of the Italian National Bioethics Committee on Aggressive Treatment towards Children with Limited Life Expectancy. Healthcare (Basel). 2020 Nov 01;8(4). doi: 10.3390/healthcare8040448. PMID: 33139649; PMCID: PMC7712670.
Copy Download .nbib Format: NLM
Share it on

Healthcare (Basel). 2020 Nov 01;8(4). doi: 10.3390/healthcare8040448.

The Motion of the Italian National Bioethics Committee on Aggressive Treatment towards Children with Limited Life Expectancy.

Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)

Matteo Bolcato, Marianna Russo, Alessandro Feola, Bruno Della Pietra, Camilla Tettamanti, Alessandro Bonsignore, Rosagemma Ciliberti, Daniele Rodriguez, Anna Aprile

Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padua, 35121 Padua, Italy.
  2. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", 80138 Naples, Italy.
  3. Department of Health Sciences, Section of Legal and Forensic Medicine, University of Genova, 16126 Genova, Italy.
  4. Department of Health Sciences, Section of History of Medicine and Bioethics, University of Genova, 16126 Genova, Italy.

PMID: 33139649 PMCID: PMC7712670 DOI: 10.3390/healthcare8040448

Abstract

The motion of the Italian National Bioethics Committee entitled "Aggressive treatment or therapeutic obstinacy on young children with limited life expectancy" comprises a premise that rejects therapeutic obstinacy and makes 12 recommendations. Recommendation no. 1 states the general rules: it ascribes a cardinal role to a shared care plan, it supports pain management therapy and pain relief, it opposes ineffective and disproportionate clinical treatment and defensive medicine. The other recommendations are correlated to the enacting of a national law establishing clinical ethics committees in paediatric hospitals; participation of parents and their fiduciaries in the decision-making processes; recourse to courts only as extrema ratio in the event of irremediable disagreement between the medical team and the family members; accompaniment at the end of life also through continuous deep sedation combined with pain therapy; access to palliative care; the need to reinforce research on pain and suffering in children; clinical trials and research studies conducted in children; the training of doctors, healthcare personnel and psychologists, to support parents in emotional and practical terms; the facilitation of the closeness of parents to children in extremely precarious clinical conditions; the relevant role of the associations of parents of sick children. Comments are made, in particular, about the innovative recommendations respectively relating to the adoption of care planning, the establishment, by law, of clinical ethics committees in paediatric hospitals and the limitation of recourse to courts-only as

Keywords: Italian National Bioethics Committee; aggressive treatments; short life expectancy; therapeutic obstinacy; young children

References

  1. JAMA. 2016 Jan 19;315(3):255-6 - PubMed
  2. J Paediatr Child Health. 2008 Jul-Aug;44(7-8):399-403 - PubMed
  3. Cancer. 2013 Jun 1;119(11):2067-73 - PubMed
  4. BMC Health Serv Res. 2019 Feb 1;19(1):85 - PubMed
  5. BMJ. 1998 Jan 3;316(7124):49-52 - PubMed
  6. J Crit Care. 2018 Dec;48:178-182 - PubMed
  7. J Pediatr Nurs. 2010 Oct;25(5):335-43 - PubMed
  8. J Clin Oncol. 2007 Dec 10;25(35):5636-42 - PubMed
  9. BMC Health Serv Res. 2015 Apr 01;15:130 - PubMed
  10. N Engl J Med. 2010 Apr 1;362(13):1211-8 - PubMed
  11. Palliat Med. 2015 Mar;29(3):212-22 - PubMed
  12. Front Pediatr. 2020 Jul 08;8:371 - PubMed
  13. N Engl J Med. 2002 Apr 4;346(14):1061-6 - PubMed
  14. Paediatr Anaesth. 2008 Nov;18(11):1089-95 - PubMed
  15. World J Clin Pediatr. 2018 Aug 30;7(3):75-82 - PubMed
  16. Lancet. 2014 May 3;383(9928):1547-8 - PubMed
  17. J Paediatr Child Health. 2008 Jul-Aug;44(7-8):404-8 - PubMed
  18. Mayo Clin Proc. 2010 Jan;85(1):53-62 - PubMed
  19. Behav Sci (Basel). 2018 Apr 26;8(5): - PubMed
  20. Pediatr Res. 2017 Jan;81(1-2):156-161 - PubMed
  21. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2018 Apr;34(4):288-290 - PubMed
  22. BMC Med Ethics. 2019 Mar 4;20(1):17 - PubMed
  23. Open Med (Wars). 2020 Jun 08;15(1):513-519 - PubMed
  24. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2010 Dec;40(6):821-8 - PubMed

Publication Types