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Taking Stock of Policies for Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders: Perception and Practice

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Legislating Medical Ethics

Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine ((PHME,volume 48))

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Abstract

In the waning hours of the 1987 legislative session, the New York State Legislature passed Article 29-B of the Public Health Law, commonly known as the do-not-resuscitate (DNR) law [25]. Based on a proposal by the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law [26], the law embodied a widely accepted consensus about policies that should guide advance decisions to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). That consensus reflected a judgment that CPR offered little or no benefit for some patients and should not be provided. The consensus also recognized the participation of patients, or surrogates for incapacitated patients, as an important part of the process for deciding whether an order to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be entered for patients in a hospital or other health care facility.

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Miller, T.E. (1995). Taking Stock of Policies for Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders: Perception and Practice. In: Baker, R., Strosberg, M.A., Bynum, J. (eds) Legislating Medical Ethics. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 48. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8593-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8593-4_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4438-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8593-4

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