Nurses to decide life and death in UK
British nurses are to be authorised to decide whether patients should be revived with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The new rule is aimed to prevent the “unnecessary: resuscitation of seriously ill patients. Defenders of the new regulation point out that survival rates for CPR can be as low as 5%. They argue that patients should be allowed to die in peace rather than be subjected to the indignity of repeated attempts to revive them. However, Dr Peter Saunders, general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship, says: “There is absolutely no way this can be delegated to nursing staff. It’s unfair on them to make such a call – they have neither the training nor the experience.”
Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.
Latest posts by Michael Cook (see all)
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