ABSTRACT
The doctor can combine clinical research with professional care, the objective being the acquisition of new medical knowledge, only to the extent that clinical research is justified by its therapeutic value for the patient. Such as the patient; the patient's family; the medical team, which includes doctors, nurses, students; the paramedical, such as social workers, teachers, psychotherapists, clergy, and others. Whether or not children can or should give meaningful, informed consent to treatments which are proposed is another issue debated by the Institute of Medical Ethics. The conflicting view of the doctors who believe in a compassionate easing of dying or, at least, in an allowing of dying, and the doctors who believe in a sustaining of life are expressed in these two quotations. These are it should be stressed that treatment that prolongs pain and suffering by patients and relatives and only prolongs the physiologic process of dying benefits no one, least of all the patient.
