Table 4.
Axiological analysis of the articles of the systematic review.
| Author, year of publication | End of life care | Decision making (Who, when, how) | Ethical values | Epistemic values | Ethical argumentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armstrong (14) | Avoid medical futility | Families and health professionals when risk-benefit relationship is high | Human dignity, autonomy, justive | To create a better definition of medical futility | Principialist bioethics, utilitarianism |
| Cicero (15) | Avoid medical futility | Pediatric oncologists and parents, at end of life, inducing medical futility in patients | Responsibility, mature minor doctrine | Encourage participation of adolescents with cancer in decision making at end-of-life, to avoid futile treatments | Principialist bioethics |
| Coyne (16) | All along disease care | Shared decision making between health professionals, parents and children with cancer throughout the treatment | Autonomy, best interests of children | Increase participation of children with cancer in decision-making during treatment, implement controlled clinical studies that support involvement of children in decision-making | Best interests of children |
| Delany (17) | Withdraw or withhold life support treatments | Shared decisions between health professionals and parents of critically illness children | Medical responsibility, honesty | Improve communication between parents and health professionals, using a textbook that help in decision-making | Medical responsibility |
| Lotto (19) | Treatment refusal, withdraw/withhold medical treatment at end-of-life | Medical doctors decide to withdraw/withhold treatment in patients with altered states of consciousness, based on patient free choice or sanctity of life | Autonomy, human dignity, human rights | Demonstrate a predictable correlation between the physicians’ moral principles and the agreement to withdraw life support treatment in patients who request it | Moral and ethical principles |
| Hilden (18) | Palliative care, end-of-life, euthanasia, and medically assisted suicide | Pediatric oncologists make decisions at end-of-life with poor knowledge about palliative care, medical ethics, euthanasia, and other medical decisions | Beneficence, dignity, human rights | Improve ethical training in pediatric oncologists for the better decision making at end-of-life | Medical ethics, responsibility ethics |
| Sisk (20) | Treatment refusal, abandonment, and adherence to treatment | Shared decision-making between parents and medical doctors, along all disease process | Justice, mature minor doctrine | Increase access to care during illness in adolescents and young adult patients | Principialist bioethics |