Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and medical ethics.

This paper presents an overview of the ethical issues involved in creating policy regarding the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was introduced in 1965 as a method to revive victims of acute cardiac insult from near-death conditions. The procedure is intended to prevent premature death; to be effective it must be initiated at the very latest within 12 minutes of cardiac arrest (ventricular fibrillation). Since the introduction of CPR, the scope of its use has widened such that it is often used in situations for which it has shown little, if any, benefit, and also in situations where it is contraindicated. This paper uses the issue of CPR to show how the bioethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice can be used to analyze issues in medical ethics.