Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine
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Physicians sometimes refer to a "window of opportunity" for withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in patients with acute severe brain injury. There is a period of critical illness and physiological instability when treatment withdrawal is likely to be followed by death but prognosis is uncertain. ⋯ I outline the potential arguments in favor of and against taking the window into account. I argue that it is, at least sometimes, ethical and appropriate for physicians and parents to be influenced by the window of opportunity in their decisions about life-sustaining treatment.