RT Journal
A1 Elston MP
T1 Dismissing families: A critical issue
JF Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
JO Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
YR 2006
FD April 1
VO 160
IS 4
SP 452
OP 453
DO 10.1001/archpedi.160.4.452-b
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.160.4.452-b
AB 
In my former practice I, too, dismissed families from my practice for refusing childhood immunizations. Following the lead of a pediatrician mentor of mine, I would exhaust all efforts to provide cogent arguments to support the proven safety and effectiveness of these most successful preventive regimens. When these arguments failed, I advised these well-meaning but misguided parents that they were asking me to “voluntarily contribute to the death of their child from a disease we could prevent”; an ethical breach they could not ask of me. Most understood, and although it seldom changed their preconceptions, it at least provided a conceptual basis to interpret the decision to terminate the patient-physician relationship.