TY - JOUR T1 - Highlights from this issue JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child SP - i LP - i DO - 10.1136/archdischild-2015-308699 VL - 100 IS - 5 AU - R Mark Beattie Y1 - 2015/05/01 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/100/5/i.abstract N2 - The revised Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health guidance on making decisions to limit treatment in life-limiting and life-threatening conditions in children is published as a supplement this month. The document provides an ethical and legal framework for practicing clinicians revised to reflect the changes in the scope and availability of advanced technology and in the emphasis and application of ethical and legal principles in decision making. The document sets out the circumstances under which withholding or withdrawing life sustaining treatment might be ethically permissible—NOT circumstances under which such treatment must certainly be withheld or withdrawn. In particular it describes situations in which individual children should be spared inappropriate invasive procedures—NOT types of children to whom invasive procedures should be denied. The document sets out three sets of circumstances when treatment limitation can be considered because it is no longer in the child's best interests to continue, because it cannot provide overall benefit—firstly when life is limited in quantity, secondly when life is limited in quality and thirdly informed competent refusal of treatment. The document covers the ethical and legal framework and the process of decision … ER -