DNR Order Mission Creep? » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: A Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR), is not the same thing as a “do not treat” request, although there is sometimes confusion in that regard. It simply means that if the patient has a cardiac arrest, the medical team (or nursing home personnel) are instructed to not try and revive the patient. It is not the same thing as the patient stating, “I want to die now,” or “don’t do anything to keep me alive.” It says, don’t give me CPR.
That is why an article in Medical News Today has Wesley J. Smith concerned. It suggests that patients with a DNR be dissuaded from receiving (or denied?) life-extending surgery based on poorer outcomes for such people than those without DNRs receiving the same procedures.
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