Care of the Dying Child

Oxford University Press, pounds sterling 16.50, pp 214 ISBN 0-19-261983-7.

To say that the needs of dying children have been neglected is only partly true. Most doctors who care for them struggle hard to save their lives. Advances in technology mean that there is always one more thing to try. One of the first needs of the irreversibly dying child may be for all concerned to agree to change the goal to one of symptom control rather than hoping still for total cure.

Two major problems have hitherto thwarted this transition. The first is the instinctive denial …