The weight of words: Language and ethics in pediatric palliative care

ReflectionA young man -who loved fishing, adored football, and dreamed of becoming an engineer -lay dying in the intensive care unit as leukemia and infection devastated his body.Confronted with the unimaginable, his parents chose to implement a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order to protect him from bruising and rib fractures at the end of life.A teenage girl -passionate about nail art, hunting, and photography -was nearing the end of life after a prolonged struggle with metastatic osteosarcoma.Her parents made a different choice: they opted not to implement a DNR policy.They needed to know that everything was done to save their daughter.