TOUGH CALLS: Hospital bioethics committees are increasingly...

TOUGH CALLS: Hospital bioethics committees are increasingly making recommendations on when and how to prolong the lives of critically ill patients who wish to die. (E1). . . . It is especially tough when committee members are weighing the desires of a child patient. At Children’s Hospital of Orange County, that sometimes means consulting kids as young as 7. “It depends on the condition and development of each child,” says Dr. Mitchell Cairo of CHOC’s bioethics committee, “but children at that age can be very aware of what life and death is about.”