article_snippet: Continuing treatment to keep the baby alive can sometimes actually cause greater suffering, child health doctors said.
article_snippet: The updated information provides three sets of circumstances for when limiting or withdrawing the treatment of children and babies can be considered.
article_snippet: This can be done when life is limited in quality or when life is limited in quantity.
article_snippet: Treatment can also be limited or withdrawn when there is 'competent refusal of treatment' - if an older child with extensive experience of illness repeatedly consents to stopping their medical care.
article_snippet: It says life-sustaining treatment can be limited or withdrawn when: .
article_snippet: For example, a child that has undergone repeated cycles of chemotherapy or had organ transplantation, 'will have more informed views about continuing treatment than an adult facing such treatment for the first time', the document says.
article_snippet: For some, continuing life-sustaining treatment is simply prolonging suffering in the face of the inevitable,' continuing life-sustaining treatment said.
article_snippet: In these cases, an active decision is reached among the clinicians, parents and other parties to discontinue treatment rather than cause greater suffering for the child by keeping the clinicians, parents and other parties alive.'
article_snippet: The better informed the family or the patient themselves is, the better, continuing life-sustaining treatment said, and more children and babies are receiving palliative care in hospices or at home rather than dying in hospital.
article_snippet: Decisions to limit treatments should be made by clinical teams in partnership with, and with the agreement of, the parents and child.'