What is the Ethics and Decision Making in Children’s Palliative Care course about?

All children are vulnerable and those with a serious illness or disability even more so. Moreover, decisions are made for children by others (by proxy), who are usually their parents or other caregivers. There are many difficult decisions that have to be made when providing care to children with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses. These include life and death decisions, such as whether or not to withhold or withdraw certain treatments.

Sometimes doctors adopt a paternalistic approach and tell the parents what to do and sometimes parents, who are influenced by their emotions and their fear of losing the child, will tell the doctors what to do. There is a significant risk that decisions may not necessarily be made in the best interests of the child and that the child may not have a say in this. It is therefore important that an ethical framework be applied to provision and decision making in children’s palliative care.

It is expected that on completion of this course you should be able to:

Define the concepts of morals and ethics.
Comprehend the rights of children.
Articulate medical ethics as they pertain to children’s palliative care.
Understand South African legislation regarding healthcare decisions for children.
Identify and effectively manage ethical dilemmas.
Ascertain the appropriate decision-makers for children in palliative care.
Apply an ethical framework to resolve dilemmas.
Articulate the benefits of disclosure while avoiding deceptive practices.
Determine the ethical appropriateness of withholding or withdrawing treatment.
Understand the doctrine of double effect, with the clear exclusion of euthanasia from palliative care.

Course Review

Why take the course?

“The PatchSA course on Ethics and Palliative Care is excellent. It takes the learner through all the important aspects of ethics, children’s rights, and the law regarding children, particularly in the context of palliative care. Apart from the core module contents, many links and additional resources provide interesting information and reading. Discussion of ethical dilemmas and actual cases provides additional interest and learning opportunities. Each section revises the core knowledge through quizzes and questions. The ethics novice and the experienced person will both gain from this module. I highly recommend it.”

Prof Sharon Kling MBChB DCH(SA), FCPaed, MMed, MPhil (Applied Ethics)
Consultant Paediatrician: Tygerberg Hospital
Part-time Lecturer: Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, University of Stellenbosch