PMID: 3772587May 1, 1986Paper

Ethics at the end of life: practical principles for making resuscitation decisions

Journal of General Internal Medicine
H S Perkins

Abstract

Some of the physician's most difficult decisions involve whether to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Current research, hospital policies, and case law provide little guidance for these decisions, but medical ethics offers three useful principles. All three are based on patients' wishes. First, a victim of cardiopulmonary arrest should receive CPR unless compelling reasons indicate he would not want it. Second, a patient has the right to refuse CPR. Finally, if CPR will serve no therapeutic goals defined from the patient's wishes, it should not be given. Applying these principles requires a sympathetic, directed history which elicits the patient's wishes relevant to resuscitation. This article uses an actual case and a simple algorithm to show how these principles promote ethically sound resuscitation decisions.

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Citations

Jun 1, 1989·Journal of the American Geriatrics Society·A M FaderJ Escher
Aug 6, 1995·HEC Forum : an Interdisciplinary Journal on Hospitals' Ethical and Legal Issues·C M Holden
May 1, 1986·Journal of General Internal Medicine·R H Fletcher, S W Fletcher
Jan 1, 1995·The Hospice Journal·R S SchonwetterB E Robinson
Jul 1, 1988·Journal of General Internal Medicine·R H ShmerlingT L Delbanco
Feb 24, 2001·The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics : a Journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics·F Baylis
Jan 1, 1990·Journal of General Internal Medicine·W T Branch
Dec 25, 2008·The American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care·Lauris C KaldjianKatrina T Cannon

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