Parents of terminally ill children don’t regret discussing death with them

Parents with terminally ill children do not regret talking to
their child about death if they sense the child is aware they are
dying, a study concludes.

Researchers spoke to 429 Swedish parents who had lost a child
from cancer in the 1990s about whether they had talked about death
with the child.

None of the 147 parents who discussed death with the child
regretted it, while more than a quarter of those who avoided the
subject regretted doing so. Regret was more common among the latter
group if they sensed the child was aware of imminent death.

The study was published in the September 16 edition of the New
England Journal of Medicine.

Abstract is at: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/351/12/1175