[The listening doctor; appropriate care in the last phase of life].

In his report 'Everything that can be done should not necessarily be done. Appropriate care in the last phase of life', the chairman of the steering committee of the Royal Dutch Medical Association says: 'I wish that doctors would listen to their patients.' This wish sets the tone of the report, which signals overtreatment in patients' last years of life and advocates a more restrained approach by doctors in this phase.

Cost-effectiveness of neonatal surgery: first greeted with scepticism, now increasingly accepted.

Mortality rates in neonatal surgery have dropped markedly, illustrating the enormous progress made. Yet, new questions have arisen. To mention one, health care budgets have tightened.

The cost-effectiveness of treatment for congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

Background/purpose: The cost-effectiveness of medical interventions is becoming an important issue for decision makers. Until recently, evidence of the cost-effectiveness of neonatal surgery was largely lacking. The authors analyzed the cost-effectiveness of neonatal surgery and subsequent treatment for congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).

The legal investigation of a decision not to operate on an infant with Down's syndrome and a duodenal atresia: a report from the Netherlands.

It is well-known that in the Netherlands it has for several years been possible to carry out voluntary euthanasia quite openly, provided certain strict conditions are fulfilled. This situation has arisen because courts in the Netherlands have decided that doctors who end the lives of their patients under these conditions are in a "conflict of duties" situation, and therefore should not be convicted of any criminal offence. It has, however, not been known what view a Netherlands court might take about life and death decisions concerning patients who are not capable of giving consent -- for example, infants.