ABSTRACT
Parents’ pain as they make decisions regarding short-term care and long-term treatment is unthinkable. Choosing life prolonging treatments has significant, unanticipated consequences for children and parents. So too does the alternative, the ultimate, unbearable decision to begin palliative care. In this chapter, we meet seriously ill infants and children who are being kept alive with extraordinary medical measures, and we ponder the juxtaposition of sadness and beauty, monstrous body and loving connection, hopelessness and presence, as we see the PPCT members care for and comfort stricken babies, very ill pediatric patients, and aching parents.
