Giving sick children dignity in death

The concept of palliative care for minors with terminal illnesses is gaining ground in China. Zhao Xu reports.

Lyn Gould spent just one day with Alexa, a 10-week-old girl who had been abandoned by her parents after an operation, but she will not forget the toddler, who died late last year.

"Her tiny body was fragile and encumbered with drains and post-operative wounds," said Gould, co-founder of the Butterfly Children's Hospices, an NGO that runs the Butterfly Home in Changsha, Hunan province, in an email exchange with China Daily. The hospice is the first in the country devoted solely to children with terminal illnesses.