Factors influencing parental readiness to let their child with cancer die.

Background: One in four cases of childhood cancer is incurable. In these cases death can usually be anticipated and therefore preceded by a phase of palliative care. For parents, preparing to let their child die is an extraordinarily painful process.

Parental experience at the end-of-life in children with cancer: 'preservation' and 'letting go' in relation to loss.

Purpose: For children with incurable cancer death usually is anticipated and preceded by a phase of palliative care. Despite recognition that parents have difficulty adapting to a palliative perspective there is little insight into this process. This study explored, from a parental perspective, the process parents go through when cure is no longer a possibility.