Withdrawing treatment from a critically-ill child

In this paper the ethical and legal implications of withdrawing treatment from a critically-ill child are examined. Paediatric nurses in intensive care units often rely on intuition for resolving emotive issues such as the withdrawal of treatment from a child. To enhance their contribution in the decision-making process nurses need knowledge of ethical theories and principles, and the law. Advances in technology, together with political and economic factors, could well result in more attention being placed on ethical and legal issues in paediatric intensive care units. For the purpose of this paper pseudonyms have been used.