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Article: Is consent useful when resuscitation isn't? (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
- Article from:
- The Hastings Center Report
- Article date:
- November 1, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Hastings Center. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Our increasing awareness that limitations of human knowledge, resources, and ingenuity impose finite horizons on medicine's ability to ward off disease, disability, and death has forced us to acknowledge that we must either limit medical interventions on a societal and individual basis or bankrupt ourselves. [1] Attaining a consensus about limiting treatment requires educating patients and society to understand that expectations once held about medicine no longer apply, or do so less categorically. Given our faith in medicine and its impact on personal well-being, adjusting ourselves to the realities of limited medical options will generate anxiety and a crisis in ...