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Postgraduate Medical Journal 2005;81:608-612; doi:10.1136/pgmj.2004.030429
© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.

ETHICS

Ethical issues of resuscitation: an American perspective

C A Marco

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr C A Marco
Acute Care Services, St Vincent Mercy Medical Center, 2213 Cherry Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2691, USA; cmarco2{at}aol.com

ABSTRACT

Challenging issues confront emergency physicians routinely when performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Ethical issues surrounding resuscitation may include issues of futility, withholding or withdrawing interventions, advance directives, family presence, practising procedures on the newly dead, palliative care, and communication. Principles of bioethics can be valuable in assessing and debating ethical dilemmas. In many cases where curative care is not possible or is not desired, the goal of medical care at the end of life is to provide comfort to the patient and family, rather than initiating technological interventions that are unlikely to benefit the patient.

Keywords: ethics; resuscitation


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