Resumo
Advances in perinatal medicine have dramatically improved neonatal survival. End-of-life decision making for newborns with adverse prognosis is an ethical challenge, the ethical issues are controversial and little evidence exists on attitudes and values in Europe. Objective: to assess the attitudes of the neonatal departments in perinatal clinical practice in the hospitals of European countries. Methods: a questionnaire was send to 55 NICUs from 19 European countries Results: Forty five (81.8%) NICUs were Level III. Religion was Christian in 90.7% and we observed that in north countries the religion is more influent on clinical decisions (p = 0.032). Gestational age was considered with no significant difference for clinical investment. North countries consider birth weight (p = 0.011) and birth weight plus gestational age (p = 0.024) important for clinical investment. In north countries ethical questions should not prevail when the decision is made (p = 0.049) and from an ethical point of view, there is no difference between withdraw a treatment and do not initiate the treatment (p = 0.029). More hospitals in south countries administer any analgesia (p = 0.007). When the resuscitation is not successful 96.2% provide comfort care. Conclusion: Our study reveals that cultural and religious differences influenced ethical attitudes in NICUs of the European countries.
Idioma original | English |
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Páginas (de-até) | 984-991 |
Número de páginas | 8 |
Revista | Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine |
Volume | 25 |
Número de emissão | 7 |
DOIs | |
Estado da publicação | Publicado - jul. 2012 |