ABSTRACT
There came a point in the lives of each of the babies in this study when serious doubts arose as to the wisdom of treating further. Deciding when to withhold treatment is one of the most troubling issues in Neonatal Units today. It is important to emphasise from the outset the gravity of the decision for the families concerned. All of the author's respondents were traumatised by this experience. Conscious of the dilemmas and complexities of deciding on behalf of neonates, and having established the opinions of doctors and nurses in NICUs around the country, the authors aimed to find out the nature of the parents' experiences of and opinions about decision making. Three of the mothers felt that it had been the doctors who had decided, and the fourth mother thought that there had been no decision, but that the baby had resolved things by dying.
