J Med Ethics. 2013 Sep;39(9):582-3. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2012-100677. Epub 2012 Aug 13.
Brierley et al argue that in cases where it is medically futile to continue providing life-sustaining therapies to children in intensive care, medical professionals should be allowed to withdraw such therapies, even when the parents of these children believe that there is a chance of a miracle cure taking place. In reasoning this way, Brierley et al appear to implicitly assume that miracle cures will never take place, but they do not justify this assumption and it would be very difficult for them to do so. Instead of seeking to override the wishes of parents, who are waiting for a miracle, it is suggested that a better response may be to seek to engage devout parents on their own terms, and encourage them to think about whether or not continuing life-sustaining therapies will make it more likely that a miracle cure will occur.
布赖尔利等人认为，在医学上继续为重症监护中的儿童提供维持生命的治疗已无意义的情况下，医务人员应该被允许停止这些治疗，即使这些儿童的父母认为出现奇迹治愈的可能性。布赖尔利等人这样推理，似乎隐含地假设奇迹治愈永远不会发生，但他们没有证明这一假设，而且他们很难做到这一点。与其试图推翻那些正在等待奇迹的父母的意愿，不如建议更好的回应方式可能是设法以父母自己的方式与虔诚的父母接触，并鼓励他们思考继续维持生命的治疗是否更有可能出现奇迹治愈。
