Hospitals and clinics should use their facilities or any necessary action in order to save the life of emergency patients. They can't postpone it without any reason.
*About incurable disease: It is still a controversial issue that doctors give up CPR even consented by patients or their families. This is a complex issue about dignity of life, religious belief, ethics, medical technology and patients' condition.
March 16th, 1989
The Department of Health
Case Report 1: CPR vs. DNR
A terminally hepatoma patient, 82 years old man, whose cancer cell already metastatic to bone and brain. He signed the DNR informed consent when he was competent. But he became hepatic coma later on. One day he had cardiac arrest after massive bleeding and his daughter asked the hospice staff to use CPR in order to rescue her father. The doctor was doing CPR immediately and then broke several ribs of the patient. After 30 minutes, the patient died.
Discussion: How do we carry out medical ethics if we don't have the law to protect us?
