Retrospective cohort study reveals shifting patterns in pediatric ethics consultations, indicating an evolution away from predominantly end-of-life cases over time.
Many pediatric bioethics committees were formed in the wake of the infamous “Baby Doe” cases of the early 1980s. In this article, we review a historical cohort of pediatric ethics consultations at our institution from 1984 to 2007 and compare them to more modern reviews of pediatric ethics consultation. In our sample, the majority of consultations (87%) involved limitation of life-sustaining treatments, whether by do-not-resuscitate orders, withholding of further interventions, or withdrawing of interventions. A minority of consultations (23%) involved disagreement between the family and the care team. Comparison to modern cohorts of pediatric ethics consultation suggests that the predominant case type has changed over time.
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Groden et al. (2026) studied this question.
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