Parents Choose Death for Kids with Cancer

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- As cancer treatments improve, lives are lengthened … but at what cost? Some parents say they would choose death over life for terminally ill children in extreme pain.

A survey conducted by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found some parents who had a child die of cancer considered quickening their child's death due to the amount of pain the child was experiencing. Researchers say this study was the first to explore such a topic.

Researchers interviewed 141 parents who had a child die of cancer over a year ago. Parents were asked about their behaviors and feelings leading up to the child's death. Of these parents, 13 percent had considered talking to caregivers about ending the child's life, while 9 percent actually discussed this option with the caregivers. Four percent of the parents reported having actually requested their child's death be hastened.

The parents were also given a hypothetical situation in which they had a terminally ill child with uncontrolled severe pain or a child in an irreversible coma. Fifty percent of the parents approved of hastening a child's death in both cases. However, parents were 40 percent more likely to condone hastening a child's death in the case of excruciated pain.

The findings of this survey show the need for greater emphasis on communication between caregivers and parents about available options for managing a patient's pain, researchers say.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, March 2, 2010

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