The decision making process in a pediatric patient with Leukemia: ethical issues in Chilean case.

Abstract

In health care, ethical issues coexist with generally inevitable clinical problems. It is necessary that health professionals have the tools to conduct proper analysis of these problems for accurate decision-making. A traditional therapeutic relationship is made up of two cooperative parts via the decision-making process, whose objectives are to cure and care. In the pediatric environment, due to the legal implications of the child, this process may be complicated because the parents have their own desires and values in relation to the health of their child, which may be in conflict with the wishes of the child themselves. Jonsen, Siegler and Winslade in their book Clinical Ethics developed a decision-making model to analyze cases of medical ethics known as the ‘four quadrants’. This method has as a main function, to analyze the facts and values of a clinical situation with casuistic approach that considers relevant circumstances and the specific context in which decision-making is developed. This article will show a pediatric patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, posing the question, is it ethically correct to respect the decision of a teenager to abandon treatment, despite having possibility of cure?