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Bernard Lo, MD

JAMA. 1991;265(14):1874-1875.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Everyone who dies suffers a cardiac arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can revive patients after they experience unexpected cardiac arrests and restore them to vigorous health. But for persons with progressive chronic illness, CPR is more likely to prolong death than prevent it. The thoughtful guidelines promulgated by the American Medical Association (AMA) concerning do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders¹ deserve careful reading by all physicians, but they do not address several important questions. Furthermore, on some issues, reasonable physicians will disagree, perhaps intensely.

When Is CPR Futile?

It is irrational to provide CPR when it would be futile. But while this general rule seems obvious, it may be difficult to decide, in particular cases, whether CPR would be "futile." The term futile is used in many different ways.² In a strict sense, treatment is futile when it offers no benefit to the patient, because maximal therapy has failed and physiologic improvement is . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Program in Medical Ethics, the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, and the Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to School of Medicine, Program in Medical Ethics, University of California, San Francisco, 521 Parnassus Ave, Room C 126, San Francisco, CA 94143-0903(Dr Lo).

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