A study in one of the recent issues of Pediatrics states the criteria used when defining the 'quality of life':
"The arguments that most frequently were used to conclude that quality of life was deemed poor were predicted suffering and predicted inability of verbal and nonverbal communication."
After discussing the topic of 'quality of life' on one of my groups I realized that it is far from cut and dry in the medical world. A few people had shared their ideas and I am hoping they will share them here too.
When parents are faced with making end of life decisions, they base it on quality of life. In order to do this, you have to have some idea of what that means to you.
In order for the doctors to advise parents, they too must have an idea of what their definition is to the quality of life question.
Defining 'quality of life' is not uniform. Try searching "quality of life definition". You will get answers that are across the board.
So, how do we begin to define it? Is the answer a personal one? And, if it is a personal one, then how does a doctor counsel his/her patients/parents while keeping his/her own definition out of the equation? Is that even possible?
