Children’s Views on Death and Dying: An Overview and Ethical Focus on Advance Care Planning Communication with Children

Advanced care planning is not only for adults who are dying. It is for children as well, especially children with a life-threatening or life-limiting illness. In a pluralistic society, we should also question the ethical implications of communicating with children about death. Communicating about death and advanced care planning with children should vary with their age and cognitive and developmental level. In this article, the concepts of death and cognitive development and emotional response around death, childhood communication, and coping strategies are used to explore an approach to open communication about advanced care planning that involves children, when practically possible and ethically permissible.