RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Relationship of neonatologists’ end-of-life decisions to their personal fear of death
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
JO Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP F104
OP F107
DO 10.1136/adc.2006.094151
VO 92
IS 2
A1 Peter Barr
YR 2007
UL http://fn.bmj.com/content/92/2/F104.abstract
AB Objective: To study the relationship of Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) neonatologists’ personal fear of death to their forgoing life-sustaining treatment and hastening death in newborns destined for severe disability and newborns for whom further treatment is considered non-beneficial or overly burdensome. Design: A self-report questionnaire survey of ANZ neonatologists. Setting: Neonatologists registered in the 2004 ANZ Directory of Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Participants: 78 of 138 (56%) neonatologists who responded to the study questionnaire. Main outcome measures: Between-group differences in the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale. Results: In newborns for whom further treatment was deemed futile, 73 neonatologists reported their attitude to hastening death as follows: 23 preferred to hasten death by withdrawing minimal treatment, 35 preferred to hasten death with analgesia-sedation, and 15 reported that hastening death was unacceptable. Analysis of variance showed a statistically significant difference between the three groups regarding fear of the dying process (F = 3.78, p = 0.028), fear of premature death (F = 3.28, p = 0.044) and fear of being destroyed (F = 3.20, p = 0.047). Post hoc comparisons showed that neonatologists who reported that hastening death was unacceptable compared with neonatologists who preferred to hasten death with analgesia-sedation had significantly less fear of the dying process and fear of premature death, and significantly more fear of being destroyed. Conclusions: ANZ neonatologists’ personal fear of death and their attitude to hastening death when further treatment is considered futile are significantly related. Neonatologists’ fear of death may influence their end-of-life decisions.