Orders Not to Resuscitate

Medical opinions on the inappropriateness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation of certain patients are now openly discussed, as acknowledged by the New Jersey Supreme Court in its recent Quinlan decision. As early as 1974 the AMA proposed that decisions not to resuscitate be formally entered in patients' progress notes and communicated to all attending staff.* There has been little open discussion, however, of the process by which a decision not to resuscitate is formulated. Within a single institution, practices may vary among physicians, in part from the lack of a clearly articulated hospital policy.An apparent need for hospital definitions of the . . .