December 3, 2024
Ethics in the strange new world of medicine

Imagine a frail, 91-year-old patient who is ill and approaching the end of life.

When she was brought into the Emergency Department, she told the nurse, “Don’t let them put me on machines,” but her family requested that she be “full code” — which includes chest compressions, defibrillation, intubation and mechanical ventilation — even though her physician told her family the procedures would likely cause injury and pain in the last minutes of her life without changing the outcome. How do we determine the right course of action when a patient, a patient’s family and physician do not agree? Who gets to decide the best way to treat a debilitated patient when the end of life is near?

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