Impossible Decisions: making decisions when no way seems right

by Doreen Padfield, Deborah Padfield

From the back cover: "Using many everyday stories, it looks sensitively at such tangled issues as the love triangle and giving up children for adoption, reflecting on the pressures placed on ordinary people. It works from the moving diary written by a pregnant mother whilst going through the process of deciding what to do when told that her child will be handicapped. Doreen Padfield considers the conflicting demands made of the woman when she had to face doing what she believed was wrong."

102 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although in some ways this is an outdated book - I wouldn't want anyone to use it for information about living with cystic fibrosis, one of the key examples - the core questions it asks are timeless and the advice it gives can always be timely. The focus is on being present with people in difficulty: accepting the reality that some decisions are impossible and involve grief either way, and not trying to give pat advice or pretend that things are simple. In discussing a wide range of stories which feel real (I assume most were actually doctored a little for the page, but the illusion of realism is successful), the Padfields, mother and daughter, present their points simply and convincingly. From my point of view, it doesn't hurt that Quaker perspectives are gently introduced, too!