Il bambino vulnerabile e la cura

Children with medical complexities are pediatric patients affected by chronic and life-threatening illness. They are vulnerable patients, not only from the clinical point of view but also from the social and psychological point of view. Pediatric palliative cares can represent a valid approach to deal with the complex needs of these children, since they aim at preventing and relieving of physical, psychological, social and spiritual suffering of paediatric patients and their families facing the problems associated with a life-threatening illness. Specific issues concerning pediatric palliative care are the clinical environment, the communication needs, the dependence on adults, the impact on family members, and the difficulty of the clinical and ethical decision-making process. It’s about a delicate and fragile care process full of ethical implications. The paper describes how the bioethical literature on vulnerability can help to read the ethical needs of the care relationship in which children, family members and healthcare professionals are involved. Reconceptualising vulnerability entails using it as a principle to investigate the nature of decision-making in pediatric patients, as well as a method to develop a systematic research activity on quality of life and quality of care for children with medical complexities