TY  - JOUR
T1  - Dismissing families: A critical issue
AU  - Elston MP
Y1  - 2006/04/01
N1  - 10.1001/archpedi.160.4.452-b
JO  - Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
SP  - 452
EP  - 453
VL  - 160
IS  - 4
N2  - 
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.

SN  - 1072-4710
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archpedi.160.4.452-b
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.160.4.452-b
ER  -